USA > Kansas > The northern tier: or, Life among the homestead settlers > Part 9
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The hilarity of the guests upon arrival, evidenced that they were thorough partakers of the genuine enjoyment of witnessing a wedding on the frontier. The whole scene was one of happiness and pleasure.
A number of the neighbors and friends of the parties had arrived, conspicuous among whom was the officiating cler- gyman, the Rev. Romulus Pintus Westlake, with the
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conventional plug-hat shading his manly brow, his bland countenance wreathed in happy smiles.
I will not attempt to assume the role and claim the privi- lege of the professional "Jenkins," who frequents places of fashionable resort to describe stunning toilets and print per- sonal gossip; but let this suffice for a description of the toilets of the homestead wedding party: that the neat calico dresses and sun-shade hats of the ladies, and the cheap but durable raiment of the gentlemen, were in harmony with the times, and with the plain domestic spirit that pre- vailed in the homestead region. The hour having arrived for the ceremony, the "dug-out" being found inadequate to accommodate the assembly, an adjournment to the grove was carried unanimously. The Rev. Romulus appeared to be in his natural element, supremely happy, prefacing the ceremony with a flow of eloquence, and an elaborate allusion to the happy union about to be consummated beneath the canopy of heaven, according to the institutions and laws of God and man. After he had pronounced the parties man and wife, he proceeded, in an impressive manner, to give them some gratu- itous advice as to their marital obligations, throwing in some camp-meeting phrases concerning their duty to lead Christian lives, such as, "Train up your children, while young, in the
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way they should go, and when they become old they will not depart from it," and kindred benevolent injunctions! Good advice, I thought, but rather premature.
During the delivery of this exhortation, Romulus became so impressed with his subject, that with the surrounding scene and his anxiety for the happiness of the entire assembly, he appeared to be entranced, as though suddenly inspired by the thought that he was in the midst of a wedding revival, sim- ilar in excitement to a camp-meeting outpouring. His musical and earnest voice rang out clear on the autumn breeze to the remotest portion of the assembly, and these are some of his expressions :
"Are there not more of the young people in this crowd who desire to be made as happy as this couple, by uniting in the holy bonds of wedlock? If so, now is the accepted time. Let them come forth to the altar of conjugal bliss and em- brace the present opportunity to be made happy."
That appeal seemed to produce an electrical effect, as a couple of swains stepped forth from their seats, each leading by the hand a blushing damsel, with whom they had previ- ously commenced a preliminary courtship.
At this juncture in the proceedings Esquire O-, a ven- erable homestead settler, rose and objected, when a contro- versy occurred between him and Romulus, the 'Squire saying:
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"I have been Jestice of the Peace two terms, and the statut of Kansas does not 'low any one to marry without fust gittin' a license, and as I am a Jestice of the Peace, and by virtoo of my office as a peace officer it is my bounden duty to object to these young people being married without fust gittin' a license."
Romulus replied :
"'Squire, I can marry them, and they can afterwards pro- cure the license, for human events are uncertain, and when a woman is once in the notion of marrying, if she is disappointed she may not again consent to marry the man to whom she is first engaged, and should that be the misfortune of either of these young men, they may drift away on the sea of despair or commit the unpardonable sin of suicide. Remember, 'Squire, that you and I were once young."
The 'Squire replied, earnestly :
"I say the p'int o' the business is, the statut requires the license shall be issued before the marriage can be permitted, and it is my bounden duty, as a Jestice of the Peace, to see that the law is not violated."
"'Squire, I can marry them, and the license can be issued and dated back. I have known marriage licenses to be dated back under less favorable circumstances than those surround- ing these young people."
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The 'Squire still persisted in his objections, and the matter was finally submitted to me. I promptly decided that the Justice was right, when Romulus yielded, and advised the young men to "hold the fort" until they could procure the license, and he would then marry them free of charge.
In due time the tables were spread in the grove, and dinner announced. Such a dinner! It seemed that culinary skill had been taxed to the utmost to prepare the bountiful repast spread before the assembly -roast turkey, pyramids of cake, columns of pumpkin pies, superb coffee, goblets of sweet milk, neatly indented rolls of choice butter, &c., &c. But why describe it? To appreciate such a dinner, one must be seated at the table and assist in dispatching it. I could verify my description of it by the affidavit of the Rev. Rom- ulus, whose fondness for good dinners was signally displayed on that occasion. I became alarmed lest he might injure his health, as large portions of the turkey rapidly succumbed to his voracious appetite. My astonishment increased, however, when he attacked a column of pumpkin pies, and created sad havoc among the jelly dishes and other dessert.
Dinner over, the fiddler took a position on a bench under the shade of the trees, and the young people quickly formed for the customary dance. A number of the middle-aged
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men and women joined in the quadrille, and seemed to have renewed their youth as they tripped lightly to the inspiring music.
The Rev. Romulus became silent and thoughtful, and uttering some partially incoherent remarks about the way- wardness of mankind, called for his horse. I insisted on his remaining until the quadrille was ended, when we could say farewell to our host and the bride and bridegroom, and as an extra inducement intimated that at the close of the cere- mony he had omitted to salute the happy couple. I also urged that after taking leave of our friends I would accom- pany him, as our route homeward was in the same direction for several miles.
Meantime the dance progressed. The whole scene was one of enjoyment. The music, borne by the breeze to every part of the grove, and interrupted only by the clarion voice of the prompter, created a marked sensation of pleasure. A group of elderly ladies gossiped as they watched the agile movements of the young men, and graceful, modest prome- nading of the young ladies. A stalwart settler, leaning against a tree, declared to a neighbor that, "no new got-up cotillion could compare with the 'old Virginia reel,' when he and the old woman were young."
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The healthful, blushing faces of the ladies, and sun-tanned features of the gentlemen, when dancing, were radiant indices of genuine pleasure and happiness.
Romulus assumed an air of sadness, and addressing me said, "The human heart is as prone to evil as the sparks to fly upward." As we rode down the lane his wit and humor revived, and when we separated beyond a grove, his musical voice rang out clear on the evening air as he sang, "When I can read my title clear," etc.
I could but reflect that, though eccentric, he possessed a noble heart, and the cause of Christianity was in trustworthy keeping within the boundaries of his circuit on the frontier.
CHAPTER 13.
THE HOMESTEAD REGION.
What induced the map-makers and atlas-publishers, within the last quarter of a century, to designate any part of North- western Kansas as a part of the American Desert, is a mystery to every immigrant and homestead settler who has penetrated this region. It was laid down on the map as a desert waste. During that period, however, it was watered by beautiful streams, and covered with grass, on which thousands of buf- falo fed, flourished, grew old and died, or were killed by Indians.
Prior to the year 1870 that part west of the sixth princi- pal meridian had but few settlers; few had ventured beyond that limit, a few miles west of which was the traditional dead-line of the Indians. The country was considered by hunters and travelers as a barren waste, subject to drouth and to murderous raids of hostile Indians. It had borne a bad name as to its capacity to support a population. In 1868 and 1869 the State officers cooperated with the Gen- eral Government, and put a stop to the Indian incursions by
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maintaining troops at points on the Republican and Solomon rivers.
No Indian attacks were made on the Republican and Solo- mon valleys after the summer of 1870. By the time the Land Office was established and opened for business at Con- cordia, the tide of immigration was immense into that part of the homestead region west of the sixth principal merid- ian. The buffalo and elk fled westward at the sight of the white-covered wagons and camp-fires of the settlers. The Indian warriors looked for the last time upon their favorite hunting-ground, while civilization advanced and occupied their ancestral homes on the great plains.
In spring-time the scene presented to the immigrants was one of vernal beauty. The principal streams in the home- stead region are the Republican and Solomon rivers. Their tributaries are numerous, all more or less skirted with timber, attracting the immigrants to settle along their shady banks after their weary journey from the older States; and during the summers of 1871 and 1872, camp-fires at night lighted the landscape all along White Rock, Prairie Dog, Limestone, Buffalo, Pipe and Asher creeks. Little Blue, Mill creek and other streams had furnished shady retreats and camping- ground, in earlier times, when their borders were the frontier. The Republican river rises in Colorado, thence running into
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Nebraska for nearly two hundred miles, thence into Kansas in a southeasterly course until it unites with the Smoky Hill and forms the Kansas river, near Junction City.
The Solomon river has two branches, commonly called the North and South forks, rising near the west line of the State, and forming the main stream near Cawker City.
But why describe those streams, when every homestead settler and traveler has wandered up and down their banks, and when flaming maps of that region decorate the depots of the Central Branch Railway Co., hotels and real-estate offices, in localities where, but a few years ago, the buffalo ranged undisturbed ?
It was formerly said by the hunters, trappers and plains- men that the country drained by the Republican and Solo- mon contained poor soil, only capable of producing buffalo grass, and only fit for the habitation of Indians, and as a grazing-ground for buffalo. I have a distinct recollection that when a school-boy my atlas designated this region as a part of the American Desert. Settlement and cultivation have shown that instead of its being a barren plain, the soil is fertile and the country well watered and comparatively well timbered, capable of supporting a vast population of industrious, enterprising people, with sufficient water-power for extensive manufacturing enterprises. Why the country
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received such a description as, "a barren, treeless plain," by the early travelers across the plains, is a mystery, when as far back as 1842 Col. John C. Fremont, who passed up the Republican river its entire length, gave a graphic and cor- rect description.
"We arrived," says Fremont, "on July 8, at the mouth of the Republican. For several days we continued to travel along the Republican, through a country beautifully watered with numerous streams, handsomely timbered, and rarely an incident occurred to vary the monotonous resemblance which one day on the prairie here bears to another, and which scarcely requires a particular description. Now and then we caught sight of a small band of elk, and occasionally a band of antelope, whose curiosity sometimes brought them within rifle range, would circle round us and then scour off to the prairies.
"The bottoms, from the immediate valley of the main river, were generally about three miles wide, having a rich soil of black vegetable mould, and were well interspersed with wood. The country was everywhere covered with a considerable variety of grasses, occasionally poor and thin, but far more frequently luxuriant and rich.
"We have been gradually and regularly ascending in our progress westward. On the evening of the 14th, when we
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encamped on a little creek near the valley of the Republican, two hundred and sixty-five miles by our traveling road from the mouth of the Kansas, we were at an elevation of 1,500 feet.
" At noon on the 23d we descended into the principal fork of the Republican, a beautiful stream with a dense border of wood, consisting principally of varieties of ash. The stream was forty feet wide and four feet deep. It was musical with the notes of many birds, which, from the vast expanse of silent prairie around, seemed all to have collected here. We con- tinued during the afternoon our route along the river, which was populous with prairie-dogs, the bottoms being entirely occupied with their villages, and late in the evening we encamped on its banks.
"The prevailing timber is blue-foliaged ash, and ash- leafed maple. With these were cottonwood, and long-leafed willow."
Such was Fremont's description of the Republican valley in 1842.
Nearly parallel with this valley to the south, within less than the distance of a day's journey, was the Solomon valley with its wide bottoms, fertile but undeveloped soil, timber- bordered creeks, luxuriant grass-a valley in its native beauty.
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At the time Mr. Greeley made his stage-coach trip through to Denver, he passed along the divide between the Solomon and Republican, and did not examine or explore to any ex- tent the valleys and tributary streams. Hastily passing over the country, without making a careful observation, - he reiterated the old prejudice against the plains aud the country through which he traveled. Had he passed up either the Republican or Solomon valleys and taken time to make minute observations, doubtless he would have arrived at a different conclusion as to the character of the country, its soil, timber, water, etc.
Prior to the settlement of these valleys, the whole country drained by the Republican and Solomon rivers and their tributaries was a plain of surpassing loveliness in natural beauty, with a luxuriant growth of buffalo and bunch- grass-the best grazing-ground in the West, upon which vast herds of buffalo fed at will, while the great antlered elk, deer and fleet antelope roamed over the prairies, or browsed amid the thickets of wild plum bushes at the base of the gradual elevations. No streams on the plains at that time ompared with the tributaries of the Republican and Solo- mon for timber.
On the bottoms were groves of oak, ash, cottonwood, elm
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and walnut. The smaller streams were more or less skirted with timber, not tall and stately trees like those that fell by the strokes of the woodman's ax in the early settlement of Ohio and Indiana, but timber, although of an inferior quality, yet forming beautiful groves on the extensive prairies, as if designed to furnish camping-ground and shady resting- places for weary travelers across the plains.
When the settlers penetrated this region they found it as Fremont had described it, and all their hopes of a grand country were realized when they beheld these valleys and plains stretching out before them, well watered and compara- tively well timbered, awaiting development by industry and enterprise.
This region in many localities is supplied with magnesian limestone, white as marble or of a light gray or yellow color. It is easily worked when taken from the quarry, and can be sawed with a hand-saw and dressed with a carpenter's plane, but becomes hard and durable on being exposed to the at- mosphere. This limestone formation contains the remains of petrified fish, sea-shells and bones of marine animals, sur- rounded with the formation composing the strata of rock.
Coal abounds in Cloud and Republic counties, of lignite variety; it makes good fuel, and is used extensively in the surrounding country.
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Within this region are situated the salt marshes of Kan- sas. Professor Mudge in his Geological Report of 1866 says: "The great supply of salt which is to meet the demand for Kansas and the neighboring States lies at various points in a tract of country about thirty-five miles wide and eighty long, crossing the Republican, Solomon and Saline valleys. The signs of the deposits are seen in numerous springs, but more frequently in extensive salt marshes."
The largest marshes are in Jewell and Republic counties. The great marsh in Jewell county from a distance resembles a small lake with white, crusted shores. The salt water evaporates, forming a crust of pure salt on the shore, which at all times in dry weather can be scraped up and used by the settlers. About this marsh a large number of cattle are herded for grazing purposes each summer by the stock-raisers and settlers in the vicinity. During the spring and autumn large flocks of wild-geese, brant and wild-ducks are about the marsh, generally remaining about two months during their migrations north and south, furnishing the best wing- shooting for sportsmen any where in the State. Let a gunner secrete himself on the shore of the marsh, either in spring- time or autumn, and watch the large flocks of wild-geese, blue and white brant, sailing around as if reconnoitering the position, while the "quack, quack" of the wild-ducks
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mingles with the incessant sonorous gabble of the geese, as they splash into the water, or waddle amid the tall grass, water-lilies and weeds along the margin, and he will be de- lighted with the scene and rewarded with an abundance of game if he is a good shot on the wing.
It is only a question of time and capital when these marshes, instead of being grazing-ground for stock, and hunt- ing-ground for sportsmen, will be utilized by the manufacture of salt for the western market; and when the Central Branch Union Pacific Railway is extended to Denver, as it doubtless will be, I am of opinion that large quantities of salt will be made and shipped from Northwestern Kansas to the Rocky Mountain market.
The Republican river derived its name from the "Pawnee Republic," the seat of empire of the Pawnee Indians for ages, on the head-waters of that river. The Pawnees were once a powerful tribe, and their warriors hunted the buffalo in all this region west of the Big Blue river, in the distant past, and moored their canoes along the Republican, from its source to its mouth, and danced their war-dance in the groves bordering that stream and its tributaries long before white men had set foot upon this soil, save the followers of Coro- nado, who marched across the country three centuries ago. Wacanda, or the "Great Spirit Spring," situated on the
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north bank of the Solomon, a few miles below the forks of that stream, was a consecrated spot among the Indians, where they repaired, under the direction of their prophets or medi- cine-men, and worshiped and sacrificed to the " Great Spirit" by various ceremonies, throwing into the spring arrow-heads, trinkets and other tribal trophies.
I give the following description of the spring from the "Homestead Guide," written and published by that frontier writer and explorer, F. G. Adams, Esq., the present worthy Secretary of the State Historical Society :
"Three miles below the forks of the Solomon, and about the same dis- tance from Cawker City, is the 'Great Spirit Spring,' a mineral well, situ- ated in a natural mound of rock of calcareous tufa, thirty feet high and fifty yards across at its base. The mound is not so steep at its sides but that a carriage can be driven to the top of it, and around the well, which is in the center, and a rod across.
"This is a wonderful natural mound, though geologists are familiar with the manner of its formation. The water, as it comes up from the bowels of the earth, holds in solution various mineral substances. Iron, salt, car- bonate of lime, &c., (chiefly carbonate of lime,) coming to the surface and flowing over the ground, in contact with the air, the mineral matter is de- posited on the surface of the ground, the flow bringing new particles of such matter constantly. These particles become concreted together, form- ing rock.
"In the case of the 'Spirit Spring' the rock lies in plates, or layers, a hand's thickness and less, the plates lying so loosely one above another that in many places the water of the spring percolates through between them, oozing out at the sides of the mound, and running down, forming oblique or perpendicular lamina, concealing the edges of the horizontal
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layers. In many places, where the water now oozes out, crystals of salt and alkaline matter are found.
"The 'Spirit Spring' mound has doubtless been in process of formation since the subsidence of the sea, which covered this region in a former geo- logical period.
"The 'Great Spirit Spring' is a singular curiosity."
I visited this spring in the summer of 1872, and found it as described by Mr. Adams in his "Homestead Guide."
In the far-distant past this region was doubtless a salt- water sea, the high points and bluffs small islands, about the shores of which were vast quantities of oysters and shell-fish, as indicated by the impress of shells found in the limestone quarries on the tops and slopes of the highest hills; while fish changed to stone, sharks' teeth and remains of sea-animals are found in the rock.
From these indications I am of opinion that the sea was shallow in depth, with sedgy, marshy shores, and the climate at a high temperature, as there is abundant evidence that the large saurian crocodile existed here during that period. It is possible, if not probable, that when the eruption threw up the Rocky Mountain range, it caused the water of this sea to subside and flow to the eastward, thus forming the channels of the rivers that flow into the Missouri.
As the place forming the sea gradually filled up with the soil of the higher points, carried down by the action of the
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water, vegetation, consisting of grass and plants, sprang up, and that which was once a sea gradually became a plain, cov- ered with vegetation, over which the "mammoth " roamed at will prior to the ice period.
The past history of this region is a matter of speculation, as the traditions of the Indians only reach back a few centu- ries, at most, and the first white men who traversed this country doubtless were the followers of Coronado, in his search for gold in 1541.
That adventurer marched from Mexico, in a northeasterly direction, across what is now the State of Kansas, crossing the Smoky Hill and Republican rivers near Junction City, going as far east as Nemaha county. I am of opinion that on his return he marched directly west from Nemaha county, crossing the Big Blue, and penetrated the country watered by the Republican and Solomon rivers.
The old Spanish fort-the remains of which still exist - near Jewell City, on the bank of a branch of Buffalo creek, in my judgment was built by Coronado, either for winter quarters during severe cold weather, or as a defense against the powerful tribe of Pawnee Indians, whose seat of empire or republic he was then approaching. There is little doubt in my mind that Coronado built this ancient fort for defense
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against a siege by the Indians, or as a rendezvous while he explored the surrounding country in search of gold. It may possibly have been built by Dutisne, the French explorer from New Orleans, who in 1719 marched across what is now the State of Kansas, from the southeast to the northwest portion, as far north as the fortieth parallel -some distance north of this ancient fort. It is designated the "Old Spanish Fort," upon the supposition that it was built by Coronado.
Whether my theory of its origin is correct or not, the re- mains of this ancient fort constitute an interesting relic of the past. The country drained by the Republican and Sol- omon and their tributaries abounds in fossil remains of rare value, and many souvenirs of the past doubtless will be found by geologists upon careful examination.
In some localities petrified wood is found, and bird-tracks and the impress of the leaves of forest trees are discovered in the brown sandstone strata in Cloud and Washington coun- ties. I have seen a number of fish that have changed to the limestone usually found in the rock that has been quarried. At what period of the world's existence the fish, now become stone, existed, or the petrified woods found in this region were parts of growing trees, with branches and leaves, is a matter of speculation in my judgment, a problem which I
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