Butler County’s Eighty Years  ~  1855-1935

by Jessie Perry Stratford

A History of Butler County Biographical Sketches and Portraits with Foreword by Rolla A. Clymer

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Bourbon, Breckinridge, Weller, Anderson, Dorn, McGee, Brown, Marshall, Atchison, Johnson and Godfrey. The usual belief that Marshall was named for Chief Justice John Marshall and Brown for John Brown are errors. Both were named for pro-slavery champions of 1855.

FIRST SETTLER IN 1857

The man long credited with being the first white settler in Butler County was William Hildebrande, who arrived in May 1857, and built a cabin in what is now El Dorado Township. The neighbors said that Hildebrande harbored horse thieves. In 1859, a party of neighbors surrounded the Hildebrande home, seized and beat him and warned him to leave the county within 24 hours. He did so.

The next authenticated settlers arrived in June 1857. This party was led by Charles Stewart, of Lawrence. They came south from Lawrence, to the Osage Trail, which they then called the California Trail because it was the actual California Trail from Fayetteville.

As they topped the hill and looked down into the lovely valley of the Walnut, they decided immediately to make their stop there. It is said that some of the pioneers shouted “El Dorado!” and forthwith named their settlement El Dorado. They pitched their ten tents beside the river in the form of a circle and parked their wagons in between to form a wall of protection from the Indians. The truth is that there were no Indians in the region except stray Osage hunters who were quite used to white men. But these pioneers knew the value of being vigilant.

The next day they selected their claims and explored the country about. They found no better place for homes and so they unloaded their breaking plows and planted corn on June 17. This was the first corn ever planted in Butler County by white men, as far as we have any records.

While they named their settlement El Dorado, let it borne in mind that the first El Dorado was never incorporated as a town. It was at the old California or Osage Trail crossing, about a mile and a half south of the business center of the present El Dorado.

Ten families were in the group. Among the heads of families were: Samuel Stewart, William Crimble, John A. Wakefield, J. Cracklin, A. B. Searle, T. B. Swift and Thomas Cordiss. It is reported that their first meal beside the Walnut contained a buffalo fish caught by Crimble and a turkey shot by Stewart.

Wakefield had been a judge in Illiniois and was a strong free state man. He had been a candidate for delegate to Congress from Kansas territory in 1855 but had been defeated by the pro-slavery candidate. On the Fourth of July the settlers unfurled the United States flag and celebrated the fourth. Judge Wakefield delivered a patriotic address to the ten assembled families, and made the hills ring.

On July 9, the colonists were delighted to see another caravan of covered wagons coming over the Osage Trail from the East. The newcomers were: Henry Martin, Jacob Carey, and H. Bemis and William Bemis, with their families.

They settled on claims nearby. Some of the original Lawrence contingent later returned to their homes. They had come to build a town, boom it, sell lots and get rich. Their plans did not work out, for El Dorado was too far west for that day when so much good land lay to the east.

It must be remembered that in 1857 El Dorado was the farthest west outpost of Kansas civilization. Along the Santa Fe trail were some trading posts and stations for the army, but from El Dorado west there were no settlements. Wichita was not even dreamed of for another dozen years.

The infant settlement at El Dorado, therefore, is the parent of many settlements. It was from Butler County that the emigrants came to pass on to Winfield, Wichita, Wellington and other points in the Southwest. Butler County was for a dozen years the frontier. No other county in Kansas was the last outpost of civilization for so long a time.

At the time the settlements in Butler County began, the Osage Indians had government title to the southern half of the present Butler. The boundary line had been established by treaty in 1825, and the sons of Isaac McCoy, Baptist missionary, were engaged by the government to survey the line. They did so, and it was marked, but only at intervals. The Indians protested that the line was too far south and destroyed some of the monuments. Accordingly, when the white settlers began pouring in, nobody knew exactly where the line really had been run.

The settlers at El Dorado were not molested, although the Osages claimed the

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land as their own. But when the Lawrence pioneers began spreading southward and established a town at Orozonia at the junction of the Walnut and Whitewater, near the present Augusta, the Osages drove them away. The Lawrence group also planned a town over the townsite and founded Fontanella, but it also failed.

Northward, away from the disputed lands, the settlers were more fortunate.

CHELSEA IS RIVAL SETTLEMENT

A settlement rival to El Dorado was founded in August, 1857, at Chelsea. One of the leaders of this settlement was a Mrs. DeRacken, who came with her three sons, Bob, John and Reuben. They took a claim on DeRacken Creek, which now is incorrectly spelled Durachen. In a later chapter the fate of the DeRackens will be discussed further, for they were charged with being outlaws.

This party was organized at Emporia, as Martin Vaught tells in his delightful narrative in Mooney’s History of Butler County. In August, 1857, Vaught was in camp at Emporia with George T. Donaldson, J. C. Lambdin and Lambdin’s son Ralph. Others joined them there and they decided to cast their lot together and go farther west and select the cream of the land. Others in the party included William Woodruff, James Leander, Stephen White, Israel, Tom and Dave Scott, the DeRackens, William Rice, Horace Cole, and Gorum Davis Morton, known as the prince.

There they stopped at their camp I. N. Barton, a college professor of Maine, who described to them the beauties of the Walnut Valley with its wonderful groves of Walnut, hickory, oak, hackberry, sycamore, elm and other trees. They voted unanimously to seek that place.

Upon their arrival at Chelsea they found Doctor Lewellen and Charles Jefferson had preceded them and already had staked claims in the Chelsea neighborhood. Lewellen was not a physician. Doctor was his given name. He was a great promoter, owned a store in pioneer Wichita, laid out Lewellen’s subdivision there, and has a street named for him there, but he loved Butler County and returned to his home after having helped Wichita to get its start.

Cole settled on Cole Creek with his two brothers. Satchell Creek, further south, was named for the Satchell family that settled there. A member of this family, Miss Sarah C. Satchell taught the first school in Butler County. It was organized in the summer of 1860. It had to be a summer school, for there was no school house and Miss Satchell taught in her home and in the open. It was a tuition and subscription school. None but the smaller children attended.

Another of the early settlers deserving mention is J. D. Conner, who did not come until 1858, but who made the first regular land entry in Butler County. Others staked their claims and occupied them, but Conner was the first to complete the legal forms.

Conner, who was born in County Kerr, Ireland, June 20, 1837 came to American when nine years old and settled in Portsmouth, N.H., where he spent his youth and became a printer. In 1857 he drifted westward arriving in Wyandotte (Kansas). He held a case for a time on a paper at Quindaro, sojourned for a time in Johnson County and in the spring of 1858, following the California Trail, landed in Butler County, taking his claim. Mr. Conner enlisted as a private in the first 9th Kansas in 1862 and served until the close of the war, being discharged as first lieutenant. He was a member of the legislature in 1866-7, during which time – the boundary lines of the county were settled. He was county treasurer four years. His daughter, Miss Coskry Conner, lives in Wichita and the younger daughter, Mrs. J. C. Hoyt, in El Dorado.

Another who deserves especial mention is Daniel H. Cupp, who did not arrive until 1860, but who was among the first to cross the Whitewater to settle beyond Towanda. He came with his wife, carrying in the covered wagon, among other things a Seth Thomas clock. It is said to be the first clock west of the Whitewater and at the time was believed to be the only clock between the Whitewater and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Cupp hunted buffalo, deer, turkeys and other game. He killed a bear on the site of West Wichita and brought back the bear skin as well as a good bit of bear steak.

Mrs. Cupp, too, could handle a rifle and shot gun. She once shot a 21-pound gobbler in her own yard. Wild cats often came out of the timber to carry off the Cupp chickens and Mrs. Cupp shot at them too, but they always managed to get away. Mr. Cupp, whose death occurred January 12, 1930, on the farm he had owned

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and occupied 64 years, had the distinction of having killed the last wild buffalo in El Dorado Township. He was believed to have been the only man living who had driven across the site of the present Wichita in 1860.

He was an Indian trader when he first came to Kansas 74 years ago, driving to Leanvenworth for supplies and hauling them to the Commanche Indian camp on Beaver River in Oklahoma, where he exchanged groceries and clothing for buffalo hides.

He was in this camp one day when some of the braves came in with five scalps which a buxom squaw waved about on five-foot poles. One scalp was of long auburn hair; one, a man’s, of black hair; two were from the heads of children and the fifth was obviously that of a Mexican, probably a laborer on the ranch on which the white family had been massacred.

Cupp became uneasy when he saw these symbols of wholesale slaughter, but Ten Bears, chief of the Commanches, assured him he was safe, because the Indians had to have his supplies. Cupp told the compiler of this history of the incident and added, laughingly, that he stayed – and ate dog with the Indians. “I didn’t like the idea of eating dog,” he declared, “but after I saw those scalps, I just ate dog along with the Indians and pretended to like it.”

When Dan Cupp drove over the present site of Wichita 74 years ago, on July 10, 1860, a few buffalo hide tepees were clustered along the river bank among the cottonwood and elm trees and Indian ponies were grazing on bluestem grass. There were sand dunes too and Cupp traveled on thru the sun-baked river valley to the banks of the picturesque Whitewater River where he staked out a claim that he later sold.

WAS OFFERED WICHITA SITE

Butler County, not organized, was known as Irvin County. What is now Towanda was on the eastern edge of buffalo range. An Osage Indian trail, much traveled at that time by the Indians, crossed the spot where Cupp established his second claim in 1866 – the claim on which he lived 64 continuous years.

When Cupp first arrived in Kansas he was offered 110 acres that now comprise the chief business district of Wichita for a team of buckskin ponies but refused to trade because he thought the land too low and swampy. In 1861 he enlisted in Jim Lane’s cavalry in the Civil War and later became a member of the 17th Kansas regiment. In September, 1861, Cupp married Sarah Malan, who died in 1923.

Those were the days of romance and grim adventure. Every corner of Butler County had its adventure and its heroes in those days. These cannot all be related. In the next chapter, the names of what are believed to be first settlers in various townships will be recorded.

FIRST EVENTS

This chapter deals with first events. It is as nearly accurate as the compliers can make it.

The following record of early settlement has been carefully compiled from the recollection of Martin Vaught, J. D. Conner and D. M. Bronson and from data in their possession.

The first settlements in the several localities –were as follows: Benton Township, April 13, 1878, by J. P. J. Nelson; Bloomington Township, 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, Doctor Lewellen, Charles Jefferson and J. L. Cole; Clifford Township, 1866, H. H. Wilcox; El Dorado Township, May, 1857, William Hildebrand; Fairmount Township, 1869, Holland Ferguson; Hickory Township, 1869, Mr. Meyers; Pleasant Township, Spring of 1869, Marion Franklin; Plum Grove Township, 1860, Joseph H. Adams; Rock Creek Township, July 1868, D. L. McCabe; Rosalia Township, July, 1869, Philip Karns; Spring Township, April 1866, Dave Yates, afterward county commissioner and H. W. Yates; Towanda Township, 1858, William Vann, A. G. Davis, Chandler, Atwood and others; Union Township, April 2, 1870, A. S. McKee; Walnut Township, 1866, George Long.

First Churches: Augusta Township, 1876, Methodist; Chelsea Township, no church building; Rev. Winberg, Baptist, 1858 was the first resident preacher, Rev. C. G. Morse, Congregationalist from Emporia, had preached occasionally prior to this, and services were held in the house of J. C. Lambdin; a Presbyterian society was

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Organized in El Dorado Township and building commenced in 1872, completed in 1877; Methodist, 1873; Union Township, 1873, Methodist; 1874, Christian. Religious services are held regularly in nearly all the school houses in the county.

First school houses: August, 1869, District No. 13; Bloomington, 1872, District No. 5; Bruno by district No. 72, date not given; Chelsea, 1860, District No. 10 – first school taught by Miss Sarah Satchell; Clifford Township, 1871, District No. 21 – first school taught by S. L. Roberds, afterwards county superintendent; El Dorado, first school house built by subscription of settlers, 1861-2, afterwards purchased by District 2; Fairmount Township, 1872, District 70; Little Walnut, 1872, District 59; Plum Grove, 1872, District 53; Prospect, District 79; Rock Creek, 1870, by subscription of settlers in District 30; Rosalia, 1872, by District 35; Spring Township, August 1872, District 45; Towanda, 1863, built of logs by settlers; Union, 1874, by Districts 41 and 42; Walnut, District 64.

First business houses: Augusta, general merchandise, 1868, Shamleffer & James; Chelsea, 1859, country store, Mr. Kaufman; El Dorado, grocery, Mr. Howland, 1857; Fairmount Township, store, S. S. Saunders; Hickory Township, dry goods, William Cole; Little Walnut Township, at Quito, groceries and drugs, Dr. Pickett, 1871; Plum Grove, general merchandise, 1871; Drake & Lobdell; Rock Creek Township, grocery 1872, A. T. Bittingham; Towanda, general store, J. R. Mead, 1862.

First births: Henry Jefferson, 1857, near Chelsea. The first girl born in Butler County was Addie Cowley, May 4, 1858, in El Dorado Township. Miss Cowley became the wife of W. P. Bradley. L. Johnson was born August 1859, in Towanda Township; Charles Stewart, in 1860, in Plum Grove Township.

The first postoffices in the county were established at Chelsea, in 1858; C. S. Lambdin, postmaster; and at El Dorado, in 1860, D. L. McCabe, postmaster.

The first marriage was of Jacob E. Chase to Augusta Stewart, El Dorado Township, January, 1859; about the same time Berg Atwood and Elizabeth Bradley were married in Towanda Township. These marriages were performed by clergymen and were legal, according to pioneer usage. They were not publicly recorded for there was no court house. They were recorded in the Bible of clergymen. In pioneer times such marriages were sanctioned by usage just as today marriages can be performed on shipboard by the captain or a clergyman aboard, although no licenses are granted or certificates recorded.

First Sunday School taught by Miss Minne Post and Miss Maggie Vaught, teachers, Chelsea.

First newspaper, Walnut Valley Times, March 4, 1870.

First railroad, El Dorado and Walnut Valley, completed from Main Santa Fe lines to El Dorado, July 31, 1877, 6:27 p.m.

First recorded marriage August 11, 1861, J. D. P. Goodall to Elizabeth Cooper.

PIONEER GOVERNMENT

The pioneers were law-abiding people for the most part, but it was impossible to establish the machinery of law immediately. Sufficient number of people had to settle in the county before it could be organized and officers elected.

While federal and territorial laws applied, the nearest peace officer was distant many a day’s ride. Under the circumstances some lawless people took advantage of the situation. The chief crime was horse stealing.

We have seen how the first settler, William Hildebrande, of El Dorado Township, an alleged horse thief, was visited by his neighbors and expelled from the county. The DeRacken brothers were likewise suspected of stealing horses. They too were driven from the county.

Another time local committees exacted justice when a man named Gordon died in Chelsea Township. His widow went to Lawrence for aid from friends and her claim was jumped. The jumper fortified himself in his cabin, but a committee headed by George T. Donaldson gave the claim jumper and his two sons the alternative of leaving the county or being hung. They departed.

HISTORIC HANGING AT DOUGLASS

The most tragic event in Butler County history came during the so-called Butler County war of 1870. On November 4, a vigilance committee, out hunting for horse thieves, surround Booth’s cabin on the Walnut near Douglass, and in a gun

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fight killed George and Lewis Booth and captured a companion, Jack Corbin, who was taking shelter there. They hung Corbin. It is said that Corbin was placed upon his horse, a noose put about his neck, the horse was given a slap, and as he ran out from under his rider, left him dangling in the air until he was strangled. Having completed this work, the committee started for their homes, but soon met Jim Smith, who was riding toward the Booth cabin. They shot and killed him in a running fight. Smith also was an associate of the Booths and Corbin.

Some settlers thought that the four victims had not had a fair trial. Many even contended that they were innocent. Warrants were issued for eighty-seven men and one woman charged with complicity in the executions. A large section of Butler County sided against the vigilantes, for they contended that Butler County now had courts, and old methods of securing justice by pioneer courts were declared out.

On December 4, however, four more men were killed by the vigilantes. They were Bill Quimby, Mike Drea, Dr. Morris and his son, who also had been charged with being in the party of Douglass horse thieves. They were taken to the timber a mile and a half below Douglass and hanged.

The sheriff appealed to the state for militia to keep order, but the farmers, most of whom were veterans of the Civil War, armed themselves to defend their vigilantes. They contended that the authorities had not enforced the law against their own hands. The war ended without further bloodshed when the vigilantes were given a promise of a fair trial.

All but three were freed when brought before the justices of the peace who conducted preliminary hearings. The remaining three were finally discharged by the trial judge the following April without the formality of trial.

The law did, however, come to Butler County early in her history, even though the vigilantes continued to supplement the regularly-elected law officers. The county was organized in 1859 and Chelsea was named the county seat. At that time the county limits were north of the present county and the southern half was still in the Osage Nation. El Dorado was still a village south of the present El Dorado and did not even rate a postoffice.

EARLIEST POLITCAL EVENTS

One of the earliest political events in Butler County’s history is the apportionment of the state into legislative districts. The counties of Butler, Hunter, Greenwood, Madison, Weller, Coffey, Anderson and Allen constituted the Thirteenth district, which was entitled to one member. In August, 1857, Samuel L. Adair was elected to the senate and Columbia to the house. In October, 1857, Madison and Butler counties polled 69 Free State and seven Democratic votes. At an election under the Lecompton constitution, December 21, 1857, there were no returns from Butler County.

On March 9, 1858, Samuel Stewart, leader of the El Dorado settlement, was elected a delegate to the Minneola convention. On August 2, 1858, an election was held at the El Dorado townsite, on the Lecompton Constitution, and the entire vote (23) polled, was cast against it. On April 15, 1859, the county cast 15 votes for the Wyandotte constitution and two against it. On November 8, 1859, the county cast one vote for Johnson, Democrat, and 47 for Parrot, Republican, candidates for congress. J. C. Lambdin was elected a member of the Territorial Council at the same time.

A primitive election in Butler County was held in May, 1858, on the adoption of the Free State Constitution. It was held right north of Chelsea, under the spreading oaks that sill stand at the Daniels’ farms. No box could be found out of which a ballot box could be made, but after hunting around Mrs. Woodruff handed out a big coffee mill of the kind that has a drawer, which was used. The drawer was pulled out, a ballot dropped in, and the drawer shoved up again. There were about 100 votes cast.

Progress of Butler County was arrested by the outbreak of the Civil War. Companies were organized and the county, although sparsely settled, sent its quotas and more than its quotas into the war.

A feature of the Civil War was the coming of the loyal Indians. They were Delawares, Shawnees, a branch of loyal Cherokees and others. The majority of the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles and other “civilized” tribes were slave holders and

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