USA > Kansas > The northern tier: or, Life among the homestead settlers > Part 7
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"I have heard of lightning-bug lawyers and the exegetical blow-guns in pettifoggers' shoes advocating technical nonsense with bold effrontery, but this out-lightnings the most brilliant bug of the species-ranks the
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condemnedest, meanest pettifogging ever indulged in by counsel in a court of justice, and none but a fungus-growth, mildewed lawyer would seek to impose such an insult upon my ugly but patriotic client !
"This venerable Dutchman, who has faced the mouths of belching can- non in the Revolution of 1848, and whose blood crimsoned the waters of the Danube; who, in defending his adopted country, to use his own language, 'Fit mit Sigel' in the valley of the Shenandoah, and 'Fit mit Rosecrans' from the rock-ribbed slopes of the Cumberland mountains to the blood- stained field of Chickamauga; who has been roused a thousand times from his midnight slumber on the tented field by the long roll, and sprang to arms to meet the foe in defense of his adopted country, for which he per- iled his life, far from his home and kindred; and who, when the war was over, wounded, disabled, and disfigured by the scars of battle, sought peace and a quiet life on his homestead in this beautiful valley-and now, when he is brought here on a peace warrant into the temple of justice, covered with as many battle-scars as decorated the person of Coriolanus of old, he receives no kindness from a grateful people for his long suffering in behalf of the Republic, but is insulted by the County Attorney, who presents the countenance of this scarred veteran and dilapidated warrior as profert to the court, and as an extra inducement to convict him for pointing a rusty old shot-gun at Boonfelter's aged bell-cow. Republics may not be ungrateful, but man, vain man, clothed with the mantle and authority of a pettifogger, 'will cut such fantastic tricks' in a court of record as would make the blind- folded Goddess of Justice weep !"
This speech swept away my judicial discretion, and I dis- charged the prisoner, ordering that he go hence without day; and as he hobbled out of the court room, he bestowed a grateful look that implored a blessing on me for all time. Court adjourned for the term.
CHAPTER 10. NORTHWESTERN KANSAS.
Kansas occupies a prominent position as the central State in the Union, and her prosperity, secured under discouraging circumstances, and by the enterprise and industry of her citizens, is widely recognized. Young in years as a State, Kansas is ripe in experience, and in those progressive quali- ties that are the sure foundation of greatness. During its first settlement, no portion of the State possessed greater attractions for the agriculturist, the stock raiser, the me- chanic, and the tourist, than that part of Northern Kansas west of the Blue river, called the Homestead Region.
The Republican and Solomon valleys, and the country drained by those streams and their tributaries, but a few years ago were the hunting-ground of the Indians, and the grazing-field of the buffalo, elk and antelope, and the an- cestral haunts of the coyotes and prairie dogs. During the war of the Rebellion, the settlements of Northern Kansas had been confined to that part of the country east of the Blue river, and the few settlers who had ventured west of that river were in danger from incursions by roving bands of In-
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dians. After the war closed, immigrants again moved west- ward, crossed the Blue, and penetrated this beautiful country.
What a lovely and vast landscape stretched before the vis- ion of the beholder! The wide expanse of prairie swept away on either side, dotted here and there with groves of timber, and the vision was only limited by the far horizon. The streams, bordered with timber, could be traced by their winding course in the distance, while the natural grandeur and beauty of the landscape delighted the immigrants, whose only fear was of lurking Indians, who reluctantly yielded their favorite hunting-ground to the advance-guard of civil- ization.
The valleys of the Republican and Solomon and their tributaries were the objective points to which the immigrants wended their way. These valleys, in the spring time, were grand and beautiful beyond the power of pen portraiture. The bluffs along the streams were but sloping plains, grad- ually ascending from the bottoms to the upland prairie, with occasional headlands or promontories overlooking the streams on one shore, while on the opposite side were extensive bot- toms and plateaus. If the landscape presented to the first settlers a scene of wild loneliness, all this was rapidly changed by the echoes of civilization from the camp-fires and cabins
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of constantly-arriving immigrants. The grass-covered up- lands, the wide valleys, the shallow, narrow cañons, caused by the showers of ages as the water sought an outlet to the streams, the gradual rising ridges, bordered at the base with clusters of plum trees draped with grape-vines, forming a shady retreat for the wild-turkey and jack-rabbit, made up a picture of rural loveliness.
Among the natural scenery of this country may properly be classed the mounds, so called, being cone-shaped eleva- tions rising abruptly from the bottoms or upland, which can be seen at a great distance, outlined against the blue sky or hazy horizon. What a scene greeted the beholder, upon as- cending one of those mounds! The vision had an uninter- rupted range of the wide-extended plain. The mounds constituted lookouts for the immigrant, hunter or traveler, when watching for the approach of Indians. Where is the mound-climber among the first settlers whose heart has not leaped at the view that met his vision on ascending to the summit ? In one direction a dark moving mass outlined against the horizon, which the beholder knew to be a herd of buffalo; in another place, a band of elk quietly grazing, while the fleet antelopes dashed over the adjacent ridges. From that elevation the course of the streams could be
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traced by the darker color of the foliage of the timber skirt- ing their banks, winding away in the distance until lost to view.
A prominent feature of the natural scenery of this region is Lake Sibley, in Cloud county. It is in the shape of a horse-shoe, about two miles long, and of the width and depth of the Republican river. In the distant past it was doubt- less the channel of the river, and becoming obstructed by beaver-dams and drift-wood, the river sought its present channel, leaving the lake entirely segregated. The lake is affected by the river only when the latter overflows its banks and runs into the lake. It is fed by springs, and the water is clear, abounding in fish of several varieties, such as sun- fish, bass, cat and buffalo, the most numerous being the sun- fish and bass, which are caught in great numbers with rod and line, furnishing rare sport that more nearly resembles trout-fishing than any other in Kansas. The shores of the lake are bordered with a dense growth of willows and plum bushes, with a large number of elm, walnut and cottonwood trees, casting a cool shade in summer over the water, beneath whose shadowed surface the lithsome bass and sluggish buf- falo fish find a secluded retreat. Rambling along the shores of the lake, or reclining beneath the shade of the trees with
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rod and line, reminds one of his boyhood sport in bass-fishing in the streams of the older States.
As the shadows lengthen toward sunset, the long-drawn- out music of the katykid pervades the air in mournful ca- dences, suggesting to the mind of the credulous the bare possibility that the original notes of the "Dead March in Saul" were derived from the music of the katydid. Be that as it may, there is something in the song of the katy- did in those shadowed glens, along the shore of the lake, that causes the memory to traverse the past to the chirp of the cricket and the song of the katydid at the old homestead, in boyhood days-something that creates a momentary feeling of regret, calls up sad, but withal pleasant memories of the log-cabin, the weeping-willow by the window, the walnut trees in the barnyard, the sugar trees that bordered the lane leading to the pasture, and the stately elms and butternut trees that cast a shade over the moss-grown watering-trough at the spring branch. Such meditations are soon dispelled, however, by the deep base croaking of an aged bull-frog, of high rank, far up the lake, answered by others nearer join- ing in the chorus all along the shore in a variety of keys, from the hoarse base of the great green frog, down to the piping of the juveniles that have but recently dispensed with
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their tadpole appendage in the shallow marsh at the foot of the lake. The warning murmur of the musquito informs one that an old marauder is reconnoitering for an attack upon the vulnerable points of face or ears, just as the line quivers with a prospect of landing a bass. Barring these temporary interruptions, a day's fishing about Lake Sibley is rare sport.
During the spring and autumn months the lake is fine shooting-ground for sportsmen, large numbers of wild geese, brant and ducks congregating there.
No part of Kansas, during its early settlement, has suffered more from Indian raids than have the Republican and Solo- mon valleys. The settlers of Ottawa county were disturbed by the Indians more or less from 1860 until 1864.
In 1860, Jacob Miller was killed by Indians near the present village of Delphos, and was buried in what is now the city cemetery near Minneapolis, on the 4th of July. After that, no settlers remained in the Solomon valley above Sand creek, until 1863. In 1864, a stockade was built about three miles below where Minneapolis now stands. The fol- lowing incident of the organization of the company for de- fense of the stockade was told me by H. S. Wooden, Esq., of Minneapolis, an early settler, from whom I learned the history of the Indian raids in that county :
"In order," he said, "to obtain commissions for a captain
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and lieutenants in the militia to guard the settlement, it was necessary to have a certain number of men enrolled, and well do I remember when I first saw that company mustered into line, and the arms-old muskets-delivered to them. Many ten-year-old boys were members of the company, and as they marched away, the query rose in my mind as to which was the larger, the boy or the musket-and it was really amusing to see those little fellows at drill."
The incident shows to what extent the settlers were driven to protect themselves from the savages, and those boys, now grown to manhood, will never forget their juvenile military training in that old stockade of the past.
In 1866, several families, consisting of William Belknap, John Rice and family, Nicholas Ward and family, an old man by the name of Flint, John Marling and family, and some others, took homestead claims along White Rock creek.
In August of that year a war party of Cheyennes appeared in the vicinity of Marling's cabin, and while Marling was endeavoring to procure one of his horses for the purpose of riding down the creek to notify the settlers, the Indians en- tered the cabin and dragged Mrs. Marling into the timber, . where she was treated in the most inhuman and fiendish manner, and left in an insensible condition. Early the next : morning Marling returned with a few settlers, and found his
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wife wandering over the prairie in an almost frenzied con- dition. Her terrible suffering had rendered her almost wild. The Indians had taken everything movable from the cabin. The settlers then moved to the stockade, in Republic county. In a few days, Ward and others returned to their claims, where they remained until spring.
On the 9th of April, 1867, the Indians again attacked the settlement, killing Bartlett, Mrs. Sutzer and her little son, and Mr. Ward, taking Mrs. Ward a prisoner; since which time no trace indicating her sad fate has been discovered.
In the summer of 1866, a party of six hunters, consisting of Lewis Cassil, Walter Haines and two others from Clifton, and two sons of William Collins, then living in Cloud county, were all killed by Indians, after a desperate fight, on Little Cheyenne creek, some ten miles west of the city of Concordia, an account of which may be found in another chapter.
The Scandinavian or Swedish colony located on the Re- publican river, and laid out the present town of Scandia, in Republic county. The colony extended their settlement up and down the river, and for some distance up White Rock creek. They protected themselves as well as possible against the Indians, and when attacked, left their claims and repaired to the general rendezvous at Scandia for safety.
The Excelsior colony, composed largely of Scotchmen, was
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established in 1869, and built a block-house near where Homewood is situated.
The Swedes returned to their claims, but in May, 1869, they were driven back to Scandia by the Indians, who had attacked hunters and settlers farther west on the creek and Republican river, in which attack a settler named John Dahl was killed.
About that time, Philip Burk, a resident of Marshall county, and six others, while hunting buffalo on the Repub- lican, in the northwest part of Jewell county, were attacked by Indians, and fought their way back to White Rock creek, near its mouth, in Republic county; and upon reaching the Republican river, having exhausted their ammunition, they plunged into the river, and six of them were killed-only one, John McChesney, escaping to tell the fate of the others. A full detail of those Indian raids in that part of the coun- try may be found in the "Homestead Guide," by F. G. Adams, and in the pamphlet "History of Jewell County," by Winsor & Scarborough.
In August, 1868, the Indians made a raid along the whole frontier settlements, from the Smoky Hill river to Nebraska, mainly upon the Saline, Solomon and Republican. Benjamin White, who resided on what is now called White's creek, in Cloud county, was killed, and his daughter carried into cap-
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tivity. On the Republican, in the vicinity of White Rock creek and Scandia, the settlers suffered, but the heaviest blow was struck on White's creek and on the Solomon. Miss Jennie Paxton was teaching school on the present town site of Glasco, on the Solomon, and hearing that the Indians were advancing, she, with her pupils, started for the nearest place of safety. The Indians discovered them, and gave pursuit. The teacher was a brave young lady, and kept between the little children and the advancing savages, and they all reached a place of safety, except a boy, a son of Capt. H. C. Snyder, who was overtaken. Young as he was, he made a gallant resistance, but was left for dead. He was not mortally wounded, however, and finally recovered.
At that time Mr. Morgan, residing in Ottawa county, was wounded, and Mrs. Morgan, his wife, taken prisoner, who, with Miss White, captured on White's creek, was kept by the Indians six months, and suffered intensely, until both were rescued by General Custer. In the spring of 1869, a son of Mr. Adkins was killed by the Indians on the Repub- lican river, eight miles above Concordia.
The last raid was made by the Indians in the summer of 1870, when three men were killed at the mouth of Limestone creek, in Mitchell county, and the settlers of Jewell county, on Buffalo creek, saved themselves from attack by collecting
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together and building a barricade, or fort, on the present town site of Jewell City. It was called "Fort Jewell," and is one of the interesting features in the early history of Jewell county.
But the Indians have gone-none having appeared in Northwest Kansas since 1870, until the fall of 1878, when the Northern Cheyenne band escaped from their reservation in the Indian Territory, and in going northward crossed the western part of the State, and committed numerous murders and outrages in Decatur county and vicinity.
The buffalo, too, have been driven westward by the onward march of civilization, and Prentis's "Star of Empire on the old-time wagon wheels" is now conveyed on locomotive trucks. In lieu of forts and block-houses are the depots of railways, and instead of the war-whoop of the Indians is heard the whistle of the locomotive along the Republican and Solomon valleys. All this change in eight years; aud ere eight more years have passed away the entire northwestern portion of the State will be thickly populated with indus- trious, enterprising people, and doubtless the trains of the C. B. U. P. Railway will be running to Denver.
In the summer of 1858, T. F. Hersey and a party were traveling up the Solomon, and camped for a night on the oval-shaped mound near where the mill now stands in Beloit,
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at the base of which mound was a spring of pure water. The night was cloudless and lighted by the rays of a full moon, and as Hersey lay on his blanket he heard a rippling sound as though the water of the Solomon was running over shal- low falls; and he waded out into the stream and found a ripple of considerable fall, with rock bottom. Though it was night, his keen perception at once satisfied him that there was a water-power of great value, and he determined to re- turn in the future and secure its advantages. In 1869 he and others laid out the town of Beloit, and he commenced improving the water-power; since which time it has been amply demonstrated that the Solomon river affords more ex- tensive water-power facilities than any other stream in the State.
In June, 1872, the Northwestern Land District was cre- ated, embracing all that part of the Republican Land Dis- trict west of the west line of range 8, west. At that time Cawker City was a small village, having been laid out in the autumn of 1870 by E. H. Cawker and others. The land office for the district was located at Cawker City, and the office was opened for business on the 5th day of August, 1872.
On the 4th of July, 1872, while the citizens of Cawker City were celebrating the anniversary of Independence, a
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huge buffalo, as if his instinct had been permeated by the spirit of independence, boldly appeared upon the town site, paused a moment to look at the American flag floating from a liberty-pole, then shook his shaggy head with scornful de- fiance at the increasing evidences of civilization, and with a majestic movement turned his course westward to seek his companions. He paid dearly for his hazardous reconnois- sance, however, for a half-dozen citizens and sportsmen seized their fire-arms and gave chase, and cutting off his re- treat, hemmed him in on the town site. Then followed rare sport and a scene of lively adventure, making it one of the most exciting celebrations of the 4th of July of record on the frontier. The buffalo was a noble specimen of his species, and he struggled long to preserve his existence, but finally yielded his life a sacrifice on his native pasture, in full view of the American flag. His breath was no sooner stilled than he was dressed, and the choice portions of his flesh roasted and added to the viands which helped to distinguish the oc- casion. In the future, when Cawker City becomes a manu- facturing town, and when trains on the C. B. U. P. Railway pass through on their way from Atchison to Denver, the boys who assisted in killing that buffalo, in recounting to the traveler the incidents of the early history of the town,
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will point with pride to the exact spot where, on the 4th of July, 1872, they killed the buffalo, as a part of the sport which made that day memorable.
In the early settlement of this homestead region, the im- migrants were composed not only of persons from many of the States of the Union, but also largely of immigrants from Europe. The greatest number of foreign immigrants were from Sweden and Norway, and they are now an industrious, enterprising people-orderly, moral, frugal, and good citi- zens- who left their homes and workshops in their native country to seek homesteads that ripen into fee-simple titles to the quarter - sections of beautiful land on the prairies of Kansas. Their industry, frugality and honesty are proverbial, and they have aided materially in developing the country.
The hardy Scotsmen left their native highlands to seek homesteads on the prairies of Kansas, where they could imi- tate their idol poet, the Scottish bard, by following the plow on their own land on the Western plains, encouraging them- selves with the noble sentiment -
"A man's a man for a' that."
The stone-cutter from Edinburgh can exercise his artistic skill in carving into useful shapes the beautiful magnesian limestone so abundant in this region. If the flower-bordered banks of the Republican and Solomon remind them of the
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"Lovely Dee," or "Bonny Doon," causing a transient home- sickness, it is soon dispelled by the prospect of farms un- burdened with rent, which reflection banishes any lingering regret at leaving their native country.
As an evidence of the industry and enterprise of the Scots- men, the beautiful tract of country southwest of Belleville, in Republic county, called the "Scotch Plains," is a well-regu- lated neighborhood of farmers from Scotland, and presents as fine attractions as any tract of country in Northwestern Kan- sas. The industrious stock raisers from England here found a wide range for their cattle and sheep, while the healthful breeze fanned their ruddy faces, causing them to smile with contentment and happiness.
The polite, vivacious Frenchmen, in large numbers, here found ample room for their enterprise and industry, and have aided largely in developing the country.
The good-natured, jolly German smokes his meerschaum and drinks the staple beverage of his native country under the shade trees on his homestead, as contented and happy as the lord of his native manor on the banks of the Rhine.
In conclusion, the extensive prairies and valleys of North- western Kansas offer rare inducements to immigrants from Europe.
CHAPTER 11. THE LAND OFFICE.
January 16, 1871, the date fixed for the opening of the United States Land Office for business, was a lively day for the little village of Concordia, with its half-dozen houses surrounded with prairie grass. The creaking of the snow beneath the feet of the pedestrians, and the grating sound of the wagon wheels over the frozen ground, were evidence that the mercury was but a trifle above zero. The white covered wagons and smouldering camp-fires occupied every available space adjacent to the Land Office building.
A large number of settlers had collected in front of the building, waiting patiently for the office to open for business. One stalwart fellow had been holding to the door-knob since early dawn with as much tenacity as if life or death de- pended upon his being the first to enter the office when the door should be opened. Lawyers and land agents, with overcoat pockets crammed with papers, were passing to and fro among that vast throng of weather-beaten settlers and immigrants. That crowd of waiting people embraced per- sons of several nationalities, and native-born citizens from
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many of the States of the Union. They were of all ages, from the veteran farmer of threescore and teu, down to the young man who had just reached his majority. They were the frontiersmen whose energy and muscular power were well calculated to settle and improve a new country, and drive the Indians and buffalo westward. They were the men for whose benefit the homestead law was enacted, in return for which the Government was assured that the monotonous stillness of the frontier would be broken by every sound of civilization. They were men who could endure the hardships incident to the settlement of a new country and frontier life-men who could rear the cabin, construct the "dug - out," and overturn the prairie sod that had been the grazing-ground of the buf- falo, covered by the snows of winter and watered by the show- ers of summer for ages.
Many of them were landless in their native States, and had come west to secure a home. The assembly was a promis- cuous one. There was the gray-haired grandfather, anxious that his sons, sons-in-law and grandsons should each secure a quarter-section of land, avowing his determination to take one himself, maintaining that he could, old as he was, "make a farm" with less work, on the prairie, the difference in age even considered, than he did fifty years ago in the heavy timber of Indiana. There was the middle-aged man from
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one State, discussing with a settler from another State the relative merits of Kansas as compared with their native hills and valleys. There, too, was the battle-scarred veteran, his empty coat-sleeve swaying to and fro in the morning breeze, as he stood conversing with an army comrade, specu- lating as to how much land "Uncle Sam" would give to "honorably-discharged soldiers."
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