USA > Kansas > The northern tier: or, Life among the homestead settlers > Part 8
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Half the States of the Union were represented in that as- sembly of settlers, but they were principally from Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, with an oc- casional Yankee from the far East, whose wit and sharp rep- artee presented a strong contrast to the "thee's " and "thou's" of one or two Quakers from the Keystone State.
While eagerly watching for the office door to open for business, they manifested an unusual degree of interest, in- creased by the near prospect of securing a quarter-section of land, with a cabin in some cozy spot, enjoying a prospect of the beautiful landscape of the frontier.
The door was opened -a shout-a rush -a scramble over each other-a confused shouting of the number of the range and township, as a half-dozen or more simultaneously pre- sented their papers to the officers, who, in the tumult, could as well have told which animal was the first taken into the ark, as to have designated which one of the settlers was prior
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in time with the presentation of his papers to the proper officer. One thing was manifest, however-the land office for the Republican Land District was open for business.
I never shall forget that scene. The space outside the railing or counter was instantly filled with settlers, until there was scarcely standing room, and yet a very large number of the applicants failed to gain admittance. Throughout the entire day, during office hours, the number of applicants increased, and, at the close of business for the day, a large number had failed to gain admittance. The day's work footed up one hundred and six homesteads entered, and one hundred and eighty preemption declaratory statements filed. The officers and their clerks were obliged to work until a late hour at night to transcribe the business transacted through the day. The following day was a repetition of the previous one, and the rush continued for months.
A plan was finally adopted by which, at the close of the office in the evening, a series of numbers, from one to nearly one hundred, were made upon a piece of paper, attached to the outside of the door, upon which the settlers wrote their names opposite the numbers. By this means only a certain number of applicants were admitted at one time, and the tumult and confusion of a promiscuous admission were avoided.
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The good feeling that usually prevailed among the settlers was occasionally disturbed by the nefarious attempt of some "new-comer" to "jump" a neighbor's claim, causing a " con- test," a land-office trial that will hereafter be described.
At the time of opening the office, there were located in Concordia several members of the bar, some of whom were experienced in practice in the courts, and others newly fledged limbs of the law. They at once entered upon a lucrative practice, in preparing papers for the settlers, trying contests and doing a general real-estate business, besides practicing in the courts. They were genial, social gentlemen, energetic and enterprising, and assisted in developing the country, the growth of the town, and causing time to pass swiftly and pleasantly away.
In addition to the members of the bar, there were a num- ber of land agents, who were not lawyers in the legal con- templation of the term, but who prepared papers for the settlers and assisted in contest cases, usually by doing the "heavy sitting around," or drilling the witnesses while the lawyers tried the cases. They were what a granger would designate as "middle-men." Their success depended more upon their skill in soliciting business, than in their knowl- edge of the application of the land laws. Among the latter class, there was one of the most remarkable men whom I
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have met on the frontier. He was a large, finely-propor- tioned man, physically, with a powerful intellect-if it had been cultivated and given the right direction. When it pleased his fancy he could approach an individual with that graceful, fluent, courteous, gentlemanly address that would have been approved by Chesterfield, but back of which prob- ably lurked a sinister motive that sooner or later loomed up like a dark cloud to overshadow and darken the first favor- able impression. He differed from Brummel only as the frontier society differed from that of London at the time Brummel flourished. He could adapt himself to any avoca- tion, from that of preparing papers rapidly and correctly to a game of chance. His power as a solicitor was great, prin- cipally exerted in soliciting business on the street from every new arrival of settlers, borrowing money, or maneuvering for some favor at the hands of his friends.
At times it seemed as though he and his conscience had dissolved partnership, and he would as soon charge a settler fifty dollars as fifty cents for making out papers, or watching for the return of cancellation of an entry. He spent his money freely, when he had any, and would as soon treat a wagon-load of settlers as one individual. He was never idle, and his energy was untiring. He constantly traveled the path from his office to the Land Office, when not en-
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gaged in button-holing settlers and soliciting their business. He could drum up more business, charge larger fees with less compunctions of conscience, and indiscreetly spend more money, than any man who transacted business in the village.
Withal he was kind, benevolent and charitable, and pos- sessed some noble qualities; but it appeared as though he never had time to call them into practical use during his fast life. Invariably when he received a large fee, he would hire the best "rig" in the livery stable, and take his friends about the town, usually driving with that reckless indifference that ignored danger.
He would pay his last farthing for a buffalo calf, antelope, coyote, or prairie dog, and exhibit them gratis on the streets, until his restless disposition demanded something new, or a . change, when he would dispose of them for a trifle to any curious traveler who desired them. At length his short- comings became sufficiently apparent to induce the settlers to avoid him; his friends deserted him, and disposing of his claim near town, he hied him away to the north, leaving as the only memento of his industry the beautiful trees he planted and nurtured on his homestead, beneath the shade of which, on a pleasant Sunday, he celebrated his birthday with a few of his friends, with a keg of beer and the best viands to be had in the country.
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During the entire summer of 1871, each morning a crowd of settlers were assembled in front of the Land Office. White covered wagons blockaded the street, while the sun-tanned faces of the children were thrust out through the space be- tween the bow-supported cover and the wagon-box, audibly wondering what delayed "pa," to be answered by a kindly reprimand and words of caution from their mother, a care- worn but cheerful lady, the settler's wife, who patiently held with one hand the lines that guided the team, and with the other supported a rollicking babe, whose chubby limbs re- sembled perpetual motion in their efforts to be free.
Meantime the settler mingled with the crowd, inquiring for Government land, or the best road westward, and the best camping-ground along the route. On the vacant lots, groups of settlers surrounded camp-fires, cooking their meals, smoking, and telling stories. One group was composed of soldiers who had served in different regiments of different States, rehearsing battle scenes, camp life, and exploits in which they had participated in defense of their country. Among another group the musical talents of several were displayed, while their voices rose above all other sounds on the morning air as they sang those memorable lines-
"Tramp! tramp! tramp! the boys are marching," &c.
The song, the story and jokes were indulged in largely as
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they sat around the camp-fires; and if those scenes had their wild surroundings and appearance, they were pleasant ones, long to be remembered as the first accompaniments of settle- ment and civilization in the homestead region.
As immigration increased, and the prospect for land to become more valuable improved, "claim-jumping" (the fron- tier term for contesting a settler's right to a tract of land ) became a frequent practice, and litigated cases were often tried in the Land Office to establish the rights of the parties. The trials differed from those in a court, in this-the Register and Receiver had no power to compel the attendance of wit- nesses, by subpena or other process, and the parties litigant were obliged to rely upon the voluntary appearance of their neighbors and friends as witnesses. The non-appearance of witnesses often furnished an excuse for motions for continu- ance, and the skirmishing of attorneys with long-drawn-out affidavits, containing fine-spun theories of justice and right, with negative averments, disclaiming any purpose of delay, formed the preliminary proceedings of contests that were often amusing.
Some of the speeches of the attorneys on motions for con- tinuance were elaborate and eloquent, with quotations from Greenleaf and other law writers, and occasionally a portion of an effort of some distinguished statesman was thrown in
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by way of an extra inducement for granting a continuance. The proceedings were not strictly confined to the rules of judicial practice at common law or by statute, but more lati- tude being given under the liberal practice, the attorneys were expert at availing themselves of the privilege.
Frequently on the day of trial, before the hour fixed for the hearing, the parties and their friends would endeavor to settle the matter, by "wager of battle," outside the office. Such settlements differed from the ancient custom, in that the com- batants in contest cases never indulged in a more hazardous mode of warfare or battle than is incident to mere assault and battery.
The transient character of the residence of many of the settlers, especially those without families, caused many con- tests, and the excuse given and means resorted to by the parties at the trials, as a reason for not having a more con- tinuous residence, were as numerous and varied as the adven- tures of Don Quixote.
The testimony of the witnesses was reduced to writing by one of the local officers, or by a clerk selected and appointed for that purpose. The progress of the trial was often inter- rupted by the merriment of the attorneys and parties, caused by the ludicrous questions, witticisms and answers, the offi- cers having no power to sustain objections to frivolous ques-
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tions. Many were the amusing scenes and incidents that transpired during the trial of cases in the Land Office during several years, but to describe them in detail would require a volume.
The minute description of " dug-outs," pig-pens, "chicken- houses," and that inimitable structure-the "Kansas stable ;" the exact measurement of a certain piece of breaking; the examination-in-chief, cross-examination, reëxamination, and the different number of times the witness was reexamined and cross-examined before he was permitted to leave the stand, were sufficient to tax one's patience as much as the carbuncles that decorated the person of the ancient, oriental shepherd. The only exhilarating influence during the mo- notonous proceedings was the occasional merriment caused by the jocularity of the attorneys and the retorts by the unhappy genius on the witness-stand.
The scenes and incidents attending those trials would fur- nish material for several chapters, and properly belong to a description of life among the homestead settlers ; but I shall only allude to a portion of the evidence in two cases, partly to show some of the hardships the settlers endured, and the extremity to which parties resorted to procure and introduce testimony.
One of the trials disclosed the hardships and endurance of
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the women among the settlers. A single lady, of uncertain age, had taken a homestead in company with her relatives and other settlers, and had been driven from her claim by Indians. After a short absence they returned, and while her relatives and the settlers harvested their grain, she cooked for them, and in the meantime hoed the patch of potatoes on her claim, being well armed, and on the lookout for Indians.
"And she said she had a rifle, And a rattling pair of pistols."
On the witness-stand she testified as follows: "I hoed my potatoes while I had two navy revolvers in a belt around my waist, and near by as good a rifle as ever was fired."
"Had you been attacked by Indians, what would you have done?" inquired her attorney.
"I would have fired my last shot and then fought with my hoe and rifle!" exclaimed the lady, emphatically; and, judging from her physical development, I think she could have given any two Indians a rough hand-to-hand fight. Though modest in her demeanor, at the trial, she exhibited marked evidence of courage and bravery in time of danger. A subsequent Indian raid had driven the settlers from their homestead claims a second time, and she failing to return to her claim within the period limited by law, the contest was brought to cancel her homestead entry. The local officers
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and the department found, from the evidence, and so held, that being driven from her claim by the Indians was not a voluntary abandonment, and her homestead entry was per- mitted to remain intact upon the record.
One amusing case tried before the local officers was known among the lawyers as the "Third Creek School House Case," so called from the fact that a school house known by that name was a prominent feature in the evidence adduced at the trial. The "dug-out" of the defendant stood near the school house, and during his absence formed a monumental play- ground and recess resort for the pupils. It had as much at- traction for the frontier school-boy, whose genius was hemmed in by the pages of a spelling-book or first reader, as Bunker Hill monument has for a class in history or geometry in a select school in Boston. On one occasion, at recess or play- time, the school-boys were playing that now nearly obsolete game of ball called " Ante Over." The ball finally found a lodgment among the weeds and grass on the sod roof of the " dug-out," and a juvenile, expert at climbing, in attempting to procure the ball, fell through the roof to the dirt floor. A commotion was the result among the boys for the safety of their playmate, and they rushed into the "dug-out" to find him unharmed, save a few slight bruises. As that incident was fastened on their youthful minds, they were called as
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witnesses in the contest, to prove the dilapidated condition of the "dug-out." In the same case the defendant, disregarding the fourth commandment, was repairing the roof of his "dug- out" while religious services were being held in the school house, and the minister and a number of his congregation were called as witnesses to prove that the defendant had for- feited his right to the land for working at his "dug-out" on Sunday.
Many of those contests required several days to try them, and bring out all the testimony, under the liberal and un- limited rules and privileges governing the cases in the local office, and the settlers and spectators would sit for days on chairs or rough benches, paying eager attention to the reiter- ated statements of the witnesses, while they changed their tobacco quids from side to side, and bedewed the cottonwood floor and walls of the Land Office with copious expectora- tions of the infusion of "navy plug" or fine cut.
Such is a brief description of some of the daily scenes in and about the Land Office for several years after the office opened for business in the Republican Land District.
The general good feeling and hilarity that prevailed among the settlers and lawyers, during those early frontier times, served to lighten the otherwise monotonous, weary hours of labor and fatigue passed by the local officers at the desk,
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examining plats, tract-books and records, and answering the same questions many times during the business hours of each day. As the memory comes floating back from the past, of the kindly greeting of the settlers as they sat upon blocks of wood, rude benches, or lounged upon the prairie grass about the office, the anecdotes, jokes, stories and hilarity even now come welling up with a thousand other cherished recollec- tions of those early times, when the half-dozen cabins con- stituted the now thriving city of Concordia, when the antelope trotted leisurely across a portion of the town site, and the prairie dogs built their diminutive village, unscared, near where the railway depot now stands, surrounded with freight and ponderous machinery.
Such are the progress and development of Northwestern Kansas. Though the result may have been secured by hard- ships, by weary days of travel in covered wagons over the horizon-bounded prairie, and lonely hours about the camp- fires at night, made more lonely and desolate by the howl of the coyote, it is the work of the settlers who endured the hardships, under that wise and beneficent act of Congress- "the Homestead Act." The memorials and lasting evidence of it all may be found in the records of the land offices for the Republican and Northwestern Land Districts.
CHAPTER 12. THE DUG-OUT AND WEDDING.
The primitive dwellings of the homestead settlers on the frontier, commonly called "dug-outs," deserve a passing no- tice.
As they are temporary structures, hastily constructed by the settlers for the immediate use and present comfort of their families until more substantial residences can be erected, they will soon become relics of the past, a correct description of which can only be ascertained by reference to the evidence taken in litigated contest cases now on file in the General Land Office, unless some literary adventurer publishes an improved dictionary, or adds a new illustration to the subject of architecture in the American Cyclopedia.
The moss-grown sod roofs and mildewed walls of the dif- ferent dug-outs on land that has been the subject of contest in the Land Office, have been so often described by wit- nesses pro and con, that their characteristics will not be for- gotten by the present generation of homestead settlers; but in order to perpetuate the recollection, I insert a brief de- scription for the benefit of those who in the future may desire
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to know the design or style of architecture that prevailed among the homestead settlers in the first settlement of the country.
There were a few log cabins, but the scarcity of timber compelled economy to such an extent that the excavation in the hillside, with earth walls to shield the family from in- clement weather, composed the larger number of the tem- porary dwellings of the first settlers. There has scarcely been a litigated contest tried in the Land Office without its attendant minute description of a "dug-out," and the other indispensable requirements to establish a settler's right, viz. : pig-pen, chicken-house, corral, etc.
The site for a "dug-out" is generally selected on the side of a hill or ridge. An excavation is made twelve by fourteen feet, more or less-often less-with large forks set firmly in the ground at each angle, poles being laid across sufficiently strong to hold a heavy weight of sod for the roof. On the poles are laid puncheons, or boards if they can be procured, covered with prairie sod of a uniform thickness. I have seen prairie-grass, weeds and the sunflowers nodding in the wind, all growing on the sod roofs of "dug-outs." The front part of the structure is generally built of stone or logs, with spaces left for a door and one or more small windows. The floor is the earth leveled and smoothed with a spade.
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Many of those "dug-outs" during the first settlement of the country gave evidence of the refinement and culture of the inmates; they sheltered families who had "seen better days" and enjoyed pleasanter experiences than roughing it on the frontier. The wife had been reared in refinement and had moved in cultivated social circles in the older States, as shown by the neat and tastefully-arranged fixtures around the otherwise gloomy earth walls. The earth floor was neatly and cleanly swept, the walls were whitewashed, and upon them were pasted the newspapers that had been read by the family, among them the New York Ledger, Saturday Night, Fire-Side Companion, and the Tribune, or other weeklies giv- ing general news, according to the State from which the family emigrated. A neatly polished shelf, supported by pins driven into the wall, contained the holiday gift books, album, and that indispensable household treasure, the family Bible.
In one of those dug-outs which I visited on a certain rainy day, an organ stood near the window and the settler's wife was playing "Home! Sweet Home!" while the head of the house was half-soling his boots. With every household ar- ticle in its proper place; the earth floor neatly swept; the hospitable greeting by the settler and his wife extended to the casual visitor; a social hour passed with the settler and
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his family, further sweetened by a good dinner, was a suffi- cient recompense for a visit to many such "dug-outs." The genuine hospitality, the evidences of refinement and culture which surrounded many of those sod-roofed dwell- ings, furnished ample proof that the spirit of the frontier settlers was invincible-that they were capable of extend- ing a desirable civilization into the wilderness, far from the scenes amidst which they had been reared-and that by industry they would convert the waste places into fields of of plenty, and cause them to bloom like the gardens of beauty.
On Sunday mornings, when the bright summer's sunshine had dispelled the dew from the prairie-grass, the mother has stood at the threshold of the "dug-out" and watched her neatly but plainly dressed children, as hand in hand they disappeared across the prairie to attend Sabbath school in the district school house, and piously committed their safety to the care of Providence. They were her jewels, and she had bright hopes of their future happiness and success, though they were reared on the frontier.
Though primitive in architecture, the "dug-outs" of North- western Kansas have been refuges for many families when portions of the country have been visited by tornadoes, that occasionally sweep over the plains with resistless power, de- stroying farm-houses and villages. While more pretentious
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dwellings and barns in the track of the tornadoes, have been utterly demolished and swept away, with great destruction of life and property, the inmates of "dug-outs" have escaped injury, and the modest structures have withstood the fury of the storms. They constitute a safe and convenient refuge dur- ing such convulsions; and when a more substantial and elegant residence is erected by the settler, the old "dug-out" should be permitted to stand, not only as an interesting me- mento, but as a safe retreat in case of a threatened disaster from the elements.
I was invited by a settler to visit one of those "dug-outs" and witness the marriage of his daughter. "Be sure and come," said the hospitable farmer and his wife, as they de- parted from town, with a goodly portion of provisions to be transformed into a wedding dinner. It was a mild October day, and committing the care of the office to the Register and clerks, I shook the dust of Concordia from my feet, and rode into the country to attend the wedding at the "dug-out" of my friend.
His primitive mansion was situated at the base of a ridge, surrounded with a beautiful grove of his own planting. As I rode up the lane, on one side was a corn-field, the frosted blades rustling in the wind, and the weedless ground was checkered with gold-colored sweet pumpkins; on the op-
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posite side was a corral in which several well-fed milch cows stood lazily, or leisurely walked towards the watering-trough at the sound of the creaking of the well-wheel, denoting that it was the time for moistening their capacious stomachs with nature's beverage. As I approached the dwelling my friend was issuing his commands to the playful children, while caring for the teams that had arrived; while his wife and a couple of neighbor ladies were dextrously plucking the feathers from the body of a large turkey and other fowls, and the prospective bride, blushing and happy, was receiving her lady friends. Beneath the branches of the grove was a sward of blue-grass, sown and cultivated by the settler. After caring for the teams, he showed me his farm, his fields and his improvements, closing his conversation by avowing his determination to build a more substantial residence in the near future.
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