USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > Kansas City > Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. Historical and biographical. Comprising a condensed history of the state, a careful history of Wyandotte County, and a comprehensive history of the growth of the cities, towns and villages > Part 3
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
the spring of 1855 they left the Territory. When the first census was taken in January, 1855, the names returned from Anderson County were Francis Meyer, Valentine Gerth and John C. Clark. Ow- ing to the outrages committed upon Free-State settlers, a military com- pany was organized in the fall of 1855, and was made up of Franklin and Anderson County men. It was called the Pottawatomie Rifle Com- pany. John Brown, Jr., was elected captain. Among the men from Anderson County were Jacob Benjamin, James Townsley, Allen Jaqua, Frank Ayres, D. G. Watt, Samuel Mack, August Bondi, H. H. Williams, W. Ayres, M. Kilbourne and Dr. Rufus Gilpatrick. This was one of the John Brown companies that made itself feared by the border ruffians. Among the prominent settlers of 1855 were Darius Frankenberger, M. M. Minkler, C. E. Dewey, H. H. Williams, E. Reynolds, James Sutton, Benjamin Davis, J. H. Wolken, J. H. Rock- ers, H. M. Rumley, Samuel Mack, John McDaniel, Zach Schutte, Charles Backer, James Townsley, C. H. Price, Jesse Sutton and Hen- derson Rice. Among the prominent settlers of 1856 were W. C. McDow. A. Simons, Samuel Anderson, Jacob Benjamin, August Bondi, James Y. Campbell, John S. Robinson, Solomou Kauffman, C. W. Peckham, William G. Hill, R. D. Chase, Samuel MeDaniel, G. W. Yandall, William Tull, A. G. West, C. G. Ellis, R. Porter, John Kirk- land, William Dennis, J. F. Wadsworth, H. Cavender, Frederick Tochterman and W. G. Nichols.
The first settler of Atchison County was a Frenchman, named Pen- sinau, who, in 1839, married a Kickapoo Indian, and located on the banks of the Stranger, near Mount Pleasant. In June, 1854, a colony of immigrants crossed the river at latan, Mo., and took claims in the neighborhood of Oak Mills, Walnut Township. They were F. P. God- dard, G. B. Goddard, James Douglass, Allen Hanson and George A. Wright. But the actual settlers and the founders of the city and county of Atchison, did not enter the Territory of Kansas until the next month. When the Kansas lands were thrown open to settlers in 1854, Senator Atchison and his friends at once founded a town, and named it in his honor. It was on the Fourth of July, 1854, that Senator Atchi- son and a few Platte County friends dedicated the new town. The town company at first required every settler to build a house at least sixteen feet square upon his lot. The survey of North Atchison was made in October, 1857, by J. J. Pratt, Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, pro- prietor. It consisted of the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 36, Town 5 south, Range 20 east. A few days previous to the
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
surveying of North Atchison, Lancaster, eleven miles west, was platted, no doubt with the intention of becoming the county seat. Sumner was at this time Atchison's most formidable rival. But the next year the dispute was settled in favor of Atchison, and her court-house was completed in 1859.
The lands of Barbour County are all embraced in the "thirty-mile" and "three-mile" strips, formerly owned by the Osages and the Cherokees, respectively. These lands were ceded to the Government by the treaty of July 15, 1870, and were then offered for pre-emption, but not for homesteading, or timber-claim entry. They embraced some of the best hunting-grounds of the Osages, as the still plainly marked and numerous " buffalo wallows " testify. The first settler in the county was a man named Griffin, who located on a ranch about one mile from where Sun City now stands, in the winter of 1871-72. This pioneer was killed in the Indian Territory the following summer, and C. H. Douglass is now the leading merchant in the town. In the spring of 1872, E. H. Mosley, Lockwood and Leonard located at Kiowa. Mosley had a small stock of goods which he traded to the Indians. He spent his time hunting buffalo and collecting the hides for market. Lockwood and Leonard attempted farming. July 30, 1872, the Indians made a raid on the residences of Leonard and Lockwood, and in the fight Mosley was killed, the others saving their lives by remaining in the house, inside a stockade. Eli Smith located at the same place in October, 1872, and the first store was opened by G. Hegwer, in the spring of 1873. In December, 1872, Derrick Up- degraff located at Medicine Lodge, and, soon after, Salmon P. Tuttle. William Walters, W. E. Hutchinson, with two brothers, Jake Ryan, A. L. Duncan, David Hubbard and John Beebee made settlement at or near Medicine Lodge early in 1873, and Samuel Larsh and a Mr. Wyncoop started a ranch at the mouth of Cedar Creek, Lake City was established by Reuben Lake April 6, 1873.
Barton County is of later settlement, and was, until 1872, a part of Ellsworth County. The following were among its prominent resi- dents about that time: Thomas L. Morris, John H. Hubbard, George N. Berry, first county commissioners; M. W. Halsey, John Cook, and L. H. Lusk, second county commissioners; and the following first elected county officers: County clerk, W. H. Odell; register of deeds, T. L. Morris; clerk of district court, J. B. Howard; treasurer, E. L. Morphy; probate judge, D. N. Heizer; county attorney, J. B. How- ard; superintendent of schools, A. C. Moses; surveyor, John Favrow;
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
sheriff, George W. Moses; coroner, D. B. Baker. At the same elec- tion at which these officers were chosen, the following justices of the peace were elected: For Lakin Township, D. P. Foster and A. W. Strong; for Great Bend Township. E. J. Dodge and James Holland; and for Buffalo Township, T. S. Morton and A. Keller.
The first white men to locate in Bourbon County were United States officers and soldiers, at Fort Scott, in 1842. Regular settle- ment began in 1854. Among the pioneers were the following: In 1854, Nathan L. Arnett, in Marmaton Township, and Gideon Terrell, William and Philander Moore, in Pawnee Township; in 1855, Guy Hinton, in Walnut; Cowan Mitchell, James Guthrie, John and Rob- ert Wells, and David T. Ralston, in Marion; in 1856, John Van Syckle, Samuel Stephenson and Charles Anderson, in Franklin; D. D. Rob- erts and Joseph Ray, in Freedom; H. R. Kelso, A. Ward and Col. Bullock, in Scott; Ephraim Kepley, the Stewarts, Bowers and Halls, in Mill Creek; Gabriel Endicott, David Claypool and others in Dry- wood. David Endicott assisted the Government in the survey of the neutral lands, and Edward Jones, one of the earliest settlers in Mar- maton Township, built the first saw-mill in the county, except one built by the Government. In Timber Hill Township, the earliest set- tlers were T. K. and T. B. Julian, father and son, June 4, 1854; F. D. Myrick, in November, 1854; and M. E. Hudson, in 1855.
The earliest records state that Thurston Chase and James Gibbons staked claims on Wolf Creek, in Brown County, on May 11, 1854, and made some small improvements, but returned to the East in less than a month. In the same year W. C. Foster came to Brown County. From this time forward the tide of pioneers poured into the fertile country, and before the close of 1854 the farms of the new comers dotted the land in every direction.
The first settlements in Butler County were as follows: Benton Township, April 13, 1878, by J. P. J. Nelson; Bloomington Town- ship, 1867, Samuel Rankin; Bruno Township, May, 1869, V. Smith, Chelsea Township, August, 1857, Bob DeRacken, G. T. Donaldson, P. G. D. Morton, J. C. Lambdin, I. Scott, Martin Vaught, Dr. Le- wellen, Charles Jefferson and J. and L. Cole; Clifford Township, 1859, Mr. William Badley; El Dorado Township, May, 1857, William Hildebrande; Fairmount Township, 1869, Holland Ferguson; Hick- ory Township, 1869, Mr. Myers; Pleasant Township, spring of 1869, Marion Franklin; Plum Grove Township, 1860, Joseph H. Adams; Rock Creek Township, July, 1868, D. L. McCabe; Rosalia Town-
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
ship, July, 1869, Philip Karns; Spring Township, April, 1866, Dave (afterward county commissioner), and H. W. Yates; Towanda Town- ship, 1858, William Vann, A. G. Davis, Chandler, Atwood, and others; Union Township, April 2, 1870, A. S. McKee; Walnut Town- ship, 1866, George Long. William Hildebrande, who came in May, 1857, to El Dorado Township, was the first settler in Butler County. In June, 1857, Samuel Stewart, of Lawrence, organized a colony to settle in Butler County. July 9, 1857, Henry Martin, William Crim- ble, Jacob Carey, H. Bemis and William Bemis, with their families, settled near El Dorado. There were in this party ten other families.
Chase County was generally settled about twenty years ago, though Seth Hayes and others came as early as 1854. James Fisher, another pioneer, came in 1855. In 1873 he was robbed and murdered in his house. Among prominent old citizens have been the following who have held county offices: Sidney A. Breese, who came in 1818, and was one of the county organizers; J. S. Doolittle, J. B. Smith, A. P. Gandy, A. S. Williams, W. S. Romigh, A. S. Howard, J. S. Ship- man, E. A. Alford, D. F. Drinkwater, O. H. Drinkwater, F. B. Hunt, H. E. Snyder, M. R. Leonard, H. L. Hunt, C. C. Whitson, Samuel Buchanan, S. N. Wood. Among the earliest settlers in Falls Town- ship were James Fisher, Milton Ford and A. P. Wentworth, who came in 1857. C. S. Hills was the postmaster at Cottonwood Falls, in 1858; L. D. Hinckley opened a grocery store there in 1859.
The first white settler in Chautauqua County was Richard Slater, in July, 1868, who settled in Salt Creek Valley, in Salt Creek Town- ship, the land at that time being owned by the Big and Little Osage Indians, from whom it was obtained by the Government under a treaty iu 1870. In July, 1869, William Bowcher settled in La Fayette Town- ship, and, in the fall of the same year, settlement was first made in Harrison Township by O. Hanson; in Sedan Township, by H. S. Halla- day; Caneyville Township, by Alexander Shawver; in Summit Town- ship, by George M. Ross, and in Belleville Township, by John W. Morris and John Sutton. L. P. Getman established the first store in the county, at Elgin, and John Lee, William Gamble and Beadle Welsh started the first saw-mill at the same place, and which they brought from Wisconsin in 1870.
The first attempt at a settlement in Cherokee County was made in 1842, when a detachment of United States soldiers attempted to estab- lish a fort on Spring River. The site selected by them was owned by John Rogers, a Cherokee Indian, who asked $4,000 for the piece of
€
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
land, but as $1,000 was the limit, beyond which the officer in command could not go, Fort Scott was finally selected. The next settlement was made in Shawnee Township, in 1856, by J. Pickerell.
The first settlers of Clay County were Moses, William and Jere- miah Younkens and John P. King, who came from Pennsylvania in April, 1856. Mrs. Moses Younkens was the first white woman and Mrs. J. B. Quimby the next. The first marriage occurred December 18, 1859, and the contracting parties were Lorenzo Gates, the first postmaster on Mall Creek, and Miss Lucinda Gill. George H. Purington and Miss Helen A. M. Morse were married May 6, 1860. In the winter of 1868-69, John Cain and Miss Alice Arnold were mar- ried by J. B. MeLaughlin, justice of the peace, who stood on the oppo- site bank of the Republican from the contracting parties.
The first attempt at settlement in Cloud County was made in the fall of 1858, by John and Lew Fowler, hunters and trappers. The next year they, with G. W. Brown, platted a town site, and designated it Eaton City. They also built a house in the western part of what is now the city of Clyde, afterward called the Conklin House, which was torn down by a mob in 1862. In the spring of 1860 John Allen, of Kentucky, and his son-in-law, Sutton McWhorter, took claims north of Lake Sibley and laid out a town, which they named Union City. Three other families from Kentucky, comprising Allen's party, settled near him. While this party were building their cabins, Philip Kizer, Carey Kizer, and their brother-in-law, Newton Race, with their wives and children, selected a location on White Rock Creek. Messrs. Park, Heffington and Finney settled on Elm Creek about the same time; and during the year Daniel Wolf, from Pennsylvania, with several sons, located on Wolf Creek. Jacob Heller took a claim on June 20, 1860, and his father, Moses, and two brothers, David and Israel, came to Cloud the coming fall. In October, 1860, Jacob accidentally shot himself, his death being the first in the county. July, 1860, J. M. Hagaman, J. M. Thorp and August Fenskie settled on Elm Creek.
Prior to 1854 it is not known that any white man ever lived in Coffey County. The Sac and Fox Indians, whose reservation was north of the county, had a burial ground near the site of Burlington, and an Indian trail, from the Sac and Fox agency to the buffalo hunt- ing ground in Southwestern Kansas, also ran through the county, crossing the Neosho River at the point where Burlington now stands, and this trail was used for many years after the settlement of the county. The first white man who settled in the Neosho Valley was
1
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
Frederick Troxel, in the woods, three-fourths of a mile south of the present town site of Le Roy. Mrs. Troxel was a sister of Gen. John B. Scott, one of the founders of Le Roy. Gen. Scott and Thomas Crab- tree were, at this time, Indian traders at the Sac and Fox agency. The Hampden Colony was organized in Hampden County, Mass., March 1, 1855. The organization was for the purpose of effecting a settlement in Kansas. W. A. Ela was the first secretary. The colony, when it left Massachusetts, consisted of upward of seventy souls. It arrived at Kansas City, April 14, 1855. There they purchased teams and supplies, and arrived at Hampden, April 26, 1855.
N. J. Thompson was, unwittingly, the first settler in Cowley County, having built a cabin near what he supposed the south line of Butler, in August, 1868. The survey showed him to be in Cowley County, which was as yet Indian land, and all whites were intruders. In 1869 T. B. Ross and sons, James Renfro and sons, John and Joseph Stans- bury, B. F. Murphy, T. A. Blanchard, S. B. Williams and F. W. Schwantes took claims on the bottoms of the Walnut, a few miles above Winfield. In June, 1869, C. M. Wood penetrated as far as the west bank of the Walnut, nearly opposite the present city, and began sell- ing goods to the Indians and settlers. The Indian greed for finery and provisions, and the knowledge that the tenure of the whites was insecure, soon led to a system of pilfering and intimidation that caused Wood to leave his stockade store and retreat to the Renfro cabin up the stream. In August all settlers were warned to leave the county, and all but Judge T. B. Ross did so. In June, 1869, P. Y. Becker located south of Winfield, and E. C. Manning on the town site. Al- though the Osages had threatened the settlers and driven them out, they did little more than burn Wood's stockade, and in September the settlers began to drift back, bringing fresh accessions with them. In January, 1870, a party of fifteen men took claims along the Grouse. In the same month the members of the Walnut City Town Company (organized in Emporia to lay out and push the town which should be the future center of the county) reached Winfield. Their purpose was to locate at the junction of the Arkansas and Walnut. This was, of course, found near the present site of Arkansas City, and the settlers, giving up their Winfield claims, settled below, and started their town. All this time the settlers who were on Indian land had paid head- money to Chetopa, the Osage chief. On July 15, 1870, the Osage lands were opened for settlement, and bona fide claims were at once entered.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
White men began to locate on the "Cherokee neutral " lands, in Crawford County, about 1850, Harden Matthews settling in Sherman Township in that year. Quite a number of white men entered the county in 1852, and in 1857 some settlements were made in Walnut Township, and in 1861 W. Banks settled in Crawford Township on Big Cow Creek. John Lemans, a blacksmith. settled in Osage Town- ship in 1848. Pleasant M. Smith settled in Baker Township in 1851. Neither remained. In 1856 Mr. Sears made the first permanent set- tlement in this township, near the mission crossing on Cow Creek. Quite a number of settlers had commenced to make houses here, when, in 1859, Cherokee Indian Agent Cowan drove them from their homes, lighting their pathway by fires made of their burning haystacks, houses and barns. In 1865 other settlers came into this part of the county, among them Marion Medlin, John Hobson, Frank Dosser and S. S. Georgia; Hobson selecting for his home the spot formerly occu- pied by Mr. Sears. In 1866 S. J. Langdon and A. J. Georgia came in. J. F. Gates, Stephen Ogden, W. J. McWirt, Capt. John Hamil- ton and others, settled in Sheridan Township in 1865. Lincoln Town- ship was settled in 1852 by the Hathaways and others, and Walnut Township in 1857.
In 1852 Fort Riley was located. In 1854 settlers began to locate in Davis County. Thomas Reynolds was the first, near Ogden, in June, 1854. At that time there were not over twenty voters in all the terri- tory now embraced in Davis County. The Pawnee Town Association was organized in November, 1854, and the town of Pawnee was located. The Association issued certificates of shares, which bore date Novem- ber 26, 1834, signed by W. P. Montgomery, as president, and William A. Hammond, as secretary. Parties at that time connected with the army took quite a conspicuous part in the management of the affairs of the county (at that time there was no county organization), and thus are found the names of Gen. Lyon, Col. Montgomery, Maj. Ogden, and others frequently mentioned in connection with transactions that go to make up the history of the county. The first election, held in what is now Davis County, was on November 29, 1854, at the house of Thomas Reynolds, near Ogden, for a member of Congress for the Ninth district. The Free-State candidate was R. P. Flenniken; the pro-slavery candidate, J. W. Whitfield. Forty votes were cast. The first commissioners of the county were Robert Reynolds, C. L. Sand- ford and N. B. White, and the first meeting held by the board was at Riley City, on March 16, 1857. The commissioners present
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
at this meeting were Robert Reynolds and C. L. Sandford. G. F. Gordon was appointed clerk pro tem., but E. L. Pattee was the first regularly appointed clerk. H. N. Williams was appointed sheriff, and was the first man in the county who held that office.
The early settlers of Dickinson County were as follows: In Centre Township-Lenon family in 1855, but who left in 1858. The next were John Nash, William Lamb, A. Packard and W. H. Lamb, in 1858. Grant Township: T. F. Hersey, in 1856; James Bell and E. W. Bradfield, in 1858. Liberty Township: C. W. Staatz, 1857; J. F. Staatz, C. F. Staatz and William Brusson, 1858. Noble Township: G W. Freeman, John Erwin and the Pritchard brothers, 1858. Union Township: The Kandt family, the Koepkes and A. S. Blanchett, 1859. Ridge and Hope Townships: Settled by the Michigan colony in 1872, among its members being N. Thurstin, D. Cartier, A. Henque- net, M. Chase and others, about forty in all. Buckeye Township: M. P. Jolly and J. T. Stevenson, 1869, followed by the Buckeye colony in 1870, numbering about 200 souls. Cheever Township: First per- manent settler was M. H. Price, 1865. Several attempts at settle- ment had been made prior to this time, one as early as 1859 by a fam- ily named Hevington, from North Carolina, and by a family named Williams, in 1860. The Hevingtons took their departure in 1860, and the Williamses followed in 1860. The next attempt was made by two brothers named Murphy, in the spring of 1861. They left in the fall. The next settler was Mr. Price, in 1865, followed by Robert Kimball and family in 1866. Mr. Kimball lost his wife by cholera in 1867, after which he left the county, leaving Mr. Price the sole settler in the township until 1869, when William Warnock and family settled on the claim abandoned by Kimball, and George Shry on the claim aban- doned in 1861 by Murphy. Mr. Warnock was drowned that same year in Chapman Creek, after which his family moved out of the township, and Mr. Shry, becoming discouraged, moved back to the State he came from, and thus again were Mr. Price and family left the sole inhabitants of the township. In 1870 came Eli George, Rev. J. Lattimer and E. W. Dow, and these were followed in 1871 by a col- ony from Illinois, known as the "Prohibition Colony," organized by Rev. W. B. Christopher, and numbering about fifty souls. Flora Township: T. C. Iliff and Harrison Flora, 1870. Jefferson Township: M. Rubin and C. Hoffman, 1860. Banner Township: H. H. Nottorf, 1860. Newbern Township: A. J. Markley and J. W. Shepard, 1859. Sherman Township: Daniel Jones, 1864, followed soon after by Kerby,
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
Clemens, Smutz, Shields, Dever brothers, Bayless and others. Logan Township: J. G. Miller, William Hilcher, John Erick, D. J. Kim- merly and C. W. Abbey. Willowdale Township: W. G. Lewis, 1869, followed in 1869 by G. W. Garten and William Campbell. Hayes Township: L. K. Warnock, G. B. Smith and the Thisslers. Garfield Township: K. G. Fleming, A. R. Cormach and J. H. Carkhuff, 1870. Wheatland Township: Henry Baker and Orlando Bonner, 1870. Lin- coln Township: H. Whitley and William Frost, in 1857.
The first claims within the limits of Decatur County were taken by Col. J. A. Hopkins, in December, 1872, and by D. Coburn, S. M. Porter, John Griffith and Henry M. Playford, in January, 1873. Col. Hopkins came in September, 1872. Mrs. H. P. Gandy was the first white woman that settled and lived in the county.
The earliest settlement in Doniphan County was the Iowa and Sac Mission, under the auspices of the American Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, in charge of Rev. S. M. Irvin, who came to Kansas in 1837, and was the first white man to take up permanent residence in the then unorganized county. His wife accompanied him. Six months after the arrival of Mr. Irvin, Rev. William Hamilton came to the mission. The following were members of the noted Squatter Sovereign Association which located here: J. R. Whitehead, A. M. Mitchell, H. Smallwood, J. B. O'Toole, J. W. Smith, Sr., Samuel Montgomery, B. Harding, J. W. Smith, Jr., J. J. Keaton, T. W. Waterson, C. B. Whitehead, Anderson Cox and Joseph Siciliff.
Previous to May, 1854, Douglas County was not open to settlement by white people, being held by the Shawnee Indians as a part of their reservation. As soon as the land was thrown open for settlement, squatters came in from Missouri and from the Western and North- western States to secure claims. Gen. Fremont had passed through the county, and later large numbers of California emigrauts. Among the settlers who came into the county and settled along and in the vicinity of this road in the spring and early summer of 1854, were: J. W. Lunkins, of South Carolina, A. R. Hopper, Clark Stearns and William H. R. Lykins, A. B. and N. E. Wade, J. A. Wake- field, Calvin and Martin Adams, J. J. Eberhart, Brice W. Miller, J. H. Harrison, H. S. and Paul C. Eberhart, S. N. Wood, Mr. Rolfe, L. A. Lagerquest, James F. Legate, William Lyon and Josiah Hutchinson. On the Wakarusa, south of the road, Joel K. Goodwin settled in May, and William Breyman, July 18. T. W. and R. F. Barber settled near the site of Bloomington in 1855, and Oliver Barber
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
at the same place June 1, 1857. During the same month John A. Bean, N. Alquine and M. Albin settled a little farther west, where now is the village of Clinton, and a store was opened by the latter. As early as May, Napoleon N. Blanton was at Blanton's Bridge, which crossed the Wakarusa four miles directly south of Lawrence, and G. W. Zinn, A. W. and A. G. Glenn, M. S. Winter and William Shirley were among the settlers of 1854 on the site of Lecompton. On the present site of Vinland, Jacob Branson, Charles W. Dow, Franklin N. Coleman, George Cutler, F. B. Varnum, William White, Josiah Hargus and Harrison W. Buckley took claims during the year, and a little farther south, at Baldwin City, were Robert and Richard Pier- son, Jacob Cantrel and L. F. Green. Douglas, two miles southeast of Lecompton, was laid out on the claim of Paris Ellison, G. W. Clarke and others being associated with him as town proprietor; and late in the year, William Harper and John Chamberlain settled at Big Springs. .
W. C. and R. E. Edwards were among the very earliest set- tlers in Edwards County. They built the first brick building occu- pied as a court-house for many years. After them this county is said to have been named. In April, 1873, settlers came from Maine -N. L. Humphrey, Beza Blanchard, F. C. Blanchard, his son, W. F. Blanchard, a son-in-law and two or three daughters. E. K. Smart started a lumber-yard at Kinsley, in 1873; T. L. Rogers opened a general store; N. C. Boles was the first postmaster.
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