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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the oxen and took the family home. Mr. Wheaton was helpless all winter from his burns. Ainsworth Baker, son of D. M. Baker, also was victim of a tragedy. He went out one morning to herd cattle for James F. White, as usual. Late in the afternoon the mule he had ridden, was seen riderless. After an all-night search, the body was found the next day, mangled. Three Indians, seen in the vicinity that day, were suspected of the crime, by some.

In 1871, Emporia was the nearest railroad point. Many a Fairview pioneer was caught on the prairie with a load of freight, in a blizzard. By freighting, many of the later well-to-do farmers paid for their sugar, coffee, flour and bacon while getting a start financially.

Grasshopper Year – 1874 – as described in the opening chapters of this book, tried the pluck of Fairview settlers. Butler was undeveloped. What made her grateful then for kindness and help of friends and the charity of the world, wrote Mr. Hulburt, would now be considered insignificant. The summer of 1874 was dry; little land cultivated; farmers were inexperienced, teams were small. There also was the chinch bug. When August 1 came, there was little food left for man or beast. On Saturday, August 7, 1874, a little before noon, grasshoppers came in countless millions, and consumed what little was left of corn, potatoes and garden truck. Something had to be done so that the settlers could live through the winter.

“Let me say right here and now,” wrote Mr. Hulburt in 1895, “that a mistaken impression prevails in the East to this day about this time and trial. We still are accused of having had to depend upon charity. The older states continue to think Kansans are not a producing people, and this despite the fact that Butler County has sent train loads of corn and provisions to flooded districts of Ohio and to destitute of other places. Dr. Allen White and others went East to solicit aid for Butler County folk. Donations were generous. People were grateful. A county committee, J. C. Riley, Sr., C. C. Currier, J. D. Conner and Dr. White, distributed clothing and provisions. Lewis Maxwell went to his old home in McLean County, Ill., and brought back a carload of corn, which was divided into 10-bushel lots. Those ten bushels of corn were all many a man had to feed his team, while he put in his next crop.

GLENCOE TOWNSHIP

On May 11, 1877, Butler County commissioners granted a petition asking that a part of Little Walnut Township described as all of township 27, range 7, and all of township 27, range 8, be organized as Glencoe Township. First officers were John J. Brown, trustee; G. W. Miller, treasurer; John MacRitchie, clerk; Charles Taliaferro and W. B. Keith, justices of the peace; F. J. B. King and Peter Johnson, constables. Mr. Keith was a Civil War veteran. Keith church was established through his efforts. Keighley was platted and deeded by Moses Turpen and his wife, Josephine, on August 16, 1880, the same year the Frisco railroad was built. The Turpens, pious persons of Mormon faith, lived in a sod house. Some of their descendants still live in ths county.

Stephen Thurman, hotel keeper, was widely known. Near Keighley were Allen Brown and wife and in and near the town in an early day where John Brown, Alex Husk, H. M. Taylor, the Paynes, G. W. Miller, John MacRitchie, J. Blankenbaker, Benjamin Fillmore and Joel Parker. John Hoover drove his covered wagon into grass as high as the wagon to drive the stake on his claim.

Beaumont, on the edge of the Flint Hills country, was platted and deeded by Edwin Russell and his wife, Emma, on March 28, 1881. Cooper, Hightower, Summit, and Rogers additions were platted. A branch railroad was laid in 1885, connecting Beaumont with important towns south.

HICKORY TOWNSHIP

Probably the first settler in Hickory Township was a man named Myers, who, with his two wives lived on what later was the David Brittain farm, but who, like the element to which he belonged, was compelled to keep in advance of civilization and so, moved on about 1870, wrote the late J. O. Evertson, in 1916. A child of Myers probably was the first white child buried in the township.

Dr. J. A. McGinnis, a widower, with his brother, A. F. McGinnis, and his two sons, S. A. and Walter Fletcher, came from Lyon County in 1868 and settled on the southwest quarter of 14-28-7, a part of which later was owned by Samuel Ramp and James Brewer. A. F. McGinnis pre-empted the land owned by Clarence Dillon. Among the next arrivals were J. A. Armstrong, who bought out Mr. Myers and established a store at Old Brownlow. Mr. Bartholomew and J. F. Comstock settled in Hickory in 1871 and in that year J. M. Hampton and family came from

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Kentucky. While the Hamptons still were living in their covered wagon, their only daughter died. There being no graveyard, she was buried on the site that later became the family home. In 1871, Wesley Cornell settled on what later became the Evertson farm and H. L. Lemon pre-empted what later was the Will Hurtt farm. Settlers then came thick and fast – Aaron Surber, John Wing, John hearne, Will Drury, N. Blunt, A. D. Stone, for whom Stone branch was named; Jerry Campbell, H. M. Shannon.

Provisions were freighted from Emporia. The first store was established by Dr. J. A. McGinnis at his home. He dispensed green coffee, salt pork, sorghum molasses and corn meal. Dr. McGinnis had brought from his home in Coffey County the first seed corn, which he sold at $5 per bushel.

A son of Wesley Cornell carried the first mail from El Dorado to Hickory Township, riding a bareback pony once each wee,, for which he was paid $3 per trip. Mrs. Fie Whittlesy conducted the first school on the Hayes farm later owned by Marvel Kelly. The first church service was in the home of Dr. McGinnis. Among those attending from Rock Creek were Will, James and Alvah Prosser, and the Vanmeters. Dr. J. B. Carlisle organized the first Sunday School in 1881. He then was teaching Lost School where the Sunday School was held. When his term ended, Mrs. Martin Reecher continued the Sunday School work. Hickory Township’s first court of justice was conducted by a justice of the peace named Lamont who lived in Logan Township. His court was popular, because, it was said, he had an established rule that all cases were decided in favor of the plaintiff.

June 16, 1871, a cyclone which destroyed El Dorado, lifted until it reached Hickory where it raised trees and overturned a covered wagon occupied by six Semisches who had just arrived from Holton. No one was hurt. The shack occupied by Jerry Campbell and Billy Brown on their Honey Creek claim, was blown away and the occupants blown into the creek. Dr. J. A. McGinnis’s two-story frame house, then the only frame house in the township was destroyed. A fire in 1873 that originated in El Dorado swept across the township, driving coyotes and deer before it, leaped streams and surged on toward the Indian Territory. Lumber that Michael Semisch had hauled all the way from Humboldt, burned, while he looked on helplessly.

Vigilantes, organized by Dr. J. A. McGinnis, dispensed justice unhampered by red tape of court proceedings. A certain Jack Armstrong was suspected of importing and harboring lawless characters for the purpose of jumping claims of legitimate settlers. Vigilantes waited upon Armstrong at night and ordered him to leave the country within a stated time. Shots were fired. It never was determined who fired them, vigilantes or host. The vigilantes were summoned before the federal grand jury of the following winter at the instigation of Mr. Armstrong who claimed to have recognized members of the committee by their voices. Nothing came of it.

ORGANIZED IN 1875

Hickory Township, as it now exists, was organized February 24, 1875; the petition was signed by J. L. Moore and 53 others. At an election held April 6, 1875 at the home of Dr. J. A. McGinnis, W. S. Dubois was elected trustee; J. F. Comstock, treasurer, A. F. McGinnis, clerk; Thomas Campbell and W. H. Baxter, justices of the peace; R. Joiner and J. W. Hearne, constables; Z. T. Huston, road overseer. The duties of the road overseer were purely imaginary.

LINCOLN TOWNSHIP

On July 11, 1879, a petition was presented to the county commissioners, signed by P. J. Hawes and 52 others, asking that certain territory be taken from Chelsea and Sycamore townships and organized as Lincoln Township. In October, 1879, the petition was granted and at an election held in November, in Woodward precinct, George Hobbs was elected trustee; William Hoover, treasurer; A. H. Rose, clerk; C. Wing and John M. William, justice of the peace; Frank Freeman and James Rhodes, Jr., constables.

A great portion of the northern part of the township was known as “Speculator’s Land,” that is, land belonging to non-residents, having been located by land warrants or script at a price of 50 cents to $1.25 per acre. Odd numbered sections had been granted the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe railroad company by the government, to assist in constructing the railroad through the state.

The first settlement was by Charles Jefferson, in the late fifties. He came to the county with Doctor Lewellyn, followed by Nattie Thompson and John Hobbs in the early sixties. In 1869, the P. P. Johnson family, located on what now is the Nuttle ranch. The whole family, parents and three children, were drowned during that year.

Section 27 was owned by Dr. Allen White. Peter Hawes, John and F. C.

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Riley, Jr., William Bost and George W. Stinson were among the early settlers of Lincoln.

Mr. Dick owned the land in section 26, and Dick’s Station was once the first station north of El Dorado. The post office was kept there and the place was called Woodward, the maiden name of Mrs. Dick. There was no settlement north of this in the county.

COLONEL RAMSEY PLATS DEGRAFF

Col. A. C. Ramsey located near where DeGraff stands, purchasing nearly all the then vacant land in the township. He laid out the town of DeGraff, moved Dick’s Station to that place, was instrumental in having a depot erected and stock yards built. It is a fact that at one time more cattle were unloaded at the DeGraff stockyards for grazing purposes than at any other railroad station in the world.

LITTLE WALNUT TOWNSHIP

The Indian Trust Lands: Terms of settlement. Osage Indians owned a strip of land across the south side of Kansas, 50 miles wide, which included the south half of Butler County until 1868, when a strip 20 miles wide, which included all of the reservation in this county, was ceded to the government in trust, to be sold to actual settlers. Price and terms of settlement were not promulgated until the summer of 1869, viz., from 40 to 160 acres, in legal subdivisions and compact form, i.e., square quarters or forties must adjoin or Z-shape or a forty wide and a mile long or less, to each qualified settler. The price was $1.25 per acre. The claimant must have at least ten acres of sod broken, and living water, a well or spring and a house (a shanty, a dugout, a sod house, or even a hay house passed in those days.) An actual occupation of at least six months was required, but the great majority of the prairie claims were not proved up until 1880-1881. When desiring to make final proof, the claimant appeared at the United States land office, located at Humboldt until the fall of 1870, removed to Augusta and thence to Wichita in 1872, where he received a declaratory statement of his intention to make his final proof. This statement gave the date and the names of two neighbors, who could testify to his having complied with required conditions. This statement was published in a newspaper, as near the land as practicable, for five consecutive weeks at the settler’s expense, according to a history of Little Walnut Township, written by the late C. R. Noe.

Augusta Township extended from the west line of Greenwood County 34-1/2 miles to the east line of Sedgwick County until 1870, when Daniel Stine was trustee and assessor. In 1871, Little Walnut Township was taken from this territory. It extended from Greenwood County line to the present west line of Spring Township. It also included what now is the north half of Bloomington Township. C. R. Noe was the first and only trustee of the township thus constituted. The formation of Bloomington, Spring and Glencoe townships in 1872, reduced Little Walnut Township to its present limits of six miles square. H. H. Marshall wsa elected trustee.

Early settlements – Though these ands belonged to the Indians until 1878, there were squatters along the Little Walnut several years earlier. As far back as 1860, a settlement was established at a spring less than one mile northeast of where the Leon High School building stands. Ambitious squatters christened their prospective city Crittenden. But the record drought of that year casued the fountain to recede. Excavating 16 to 18 feet and failing to find the living fountain, they loaded their effects into their horsemobiles and quietly stole away, without leaving a record of their names. The first permanent settlements were made in 1868. They were W. Packard, Charles Tabing, M.A. Palmer, B. F. Rickey, Jacob Carey, W. T. Galliher, Addison Sawyer and Joshua Tull. These had their families. Mr. Sawyer was killed while out after his horses, March 22, 1870. His was the first grave in what is now the Leon Cemetery.

In the fall of 1870, three horses were taken from a lariat near W. Packard’s cabin about dusk one evening. They were recognized as they passed the place of his neighbor., A. N. Sloan, and Mr. Packard was notified. In company with two neighbors, he started pursuit. The third day they returned home with their recovered stock, badly jaded. All information vouchsafed the inquisitive was, “Them thieves won’t steal any more horses.” That incident, followed by the lynching of eight men near Douglass, put the damper on horse stealing for a time.

As to price fluctuations – In 1860, C. R. Noe paid $2.25 per bushel for about No. 3 grade of corn; $2.25 per bushel for potatoes; five cents per pound for salt and 35 cents for bacon. In 1872, he sold James Dodwell, of Wall street, El Dorado, a nicely dressed hog for $1.75 per hundred pounds, after butchering and hauling it twelve miles. That was the best offer he could get.

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FIRST SCHOOL IN TOWNSHIP

The first school in the township was taught by J.D. Porter in 1870, a mile west of the Frisco depot. The first school house was the Chenoweth, built in 1871, on the corner of section 16, a quarter mile west of the present Leon school building. T. O. Shinn taught the first term.

The Christian church was organized in 1872 by John Ellis, author of “The White Pilgrim.” This was the first Church of Christ organized in the county. The first village to have a blacksmith shop; a drug store and a physician, was at the junction of the north and south branches of the Little Walnut in the fall of 1872. Some notable meetings were held there. One held during the winter of 1872-1873 was supposed to be epoch making. Two narrow gauge railroads were projected to cross at that particular point. They were to be built and owned by the people. Neil Wilkie, of Douglass, afterward a state senator, and C. W. Packard, of North Branch, were chief speakers. The proposed city was christened New Milwaukee, but the roads never got as far as bond voting, so all know Quito.

Little Walnut Township voted $17,000 in bonds to the Wichita & Western Railroad Company (construction company for the Frisco), in the spring of 1879. When the line was located across his land, C. R. Noe gave the right-of-way and paid the president of the company, B. F. Hobart, $150 to pay for the right-of-way across Charles Tabing’s land, upon the promise to locate the depot where it now stands.

LEON PLATTED IN 1880

The Leon Indicator was established and the first house erected on Leon townsite in January, 1880. The first issue of the paper, bears the date of January 31, 1880. November 1, 1880, the population of Leon was over 500. Leon ranked next to Douglass, as the fourth town in the county. The coming of barbed wire fence, the early growing of hedge fences, introduction of alfalfa and kafir corn and building of the Frisco railroad set Little Walnut Township forward at a great pace.

The first construction train reached the town April 29, 1880, the first regular passenger train from St. Louis arrived May 10. The second issue of the Indicator, was published May 8. Now the lands assumed a commercial value. Loan companies were anxious to make loans on them. There was a rush of the claimants to secure publication of their final notice. The first issue of The Indicator, was printed on its own Washington hand press, June 18, 1880. It made the price for publishing these final notices $3. Up to that time it had been $4 and $5.

Thursday afternoon, September 16, 52 of these notices came from the land office to appear in the next morning’s issue of the paper – and not a stick of type left in the office. C. R. Noe’s printers said they would stay with him. So, after supper, he drove to El Dorado and secured from T. B. Murdock, of the Walnut Valley Times, a batch of nonpareil type. Arriving home at 11 o’clock p.m. the men fell to distributing type into the cases. By 7 p.m. Friday, the work of setting the type, printing a full page supplement, folding and mailing the paper was completed. That week The Indicator had 143 notices.

FIRST STORES IN LEON

F. W. Beckmeyer established the first general store in Leon; Palmer & Westacott, first drug store; W. J. Martin, first hardware; W. L. Beadle, first hotel; Postmaster Kenoyer moved the office up from Tong’s watermill and he and T. C. Chenoweth opened a grocery store; H. Belton opened a blacksmith shop. S. A. Brown & Co. had the first lumber yard, C. C. Miller local manager. A Mussleman had the first furniture store. Palmer & King established the first bank; Tong & Fetrow had a steam flouring mill and T. J. Lindsey and H. P. Morgan started in the packing business in the early eighties. One year, they salted down 800 hogs. The loss of half the population, when Oklahoma was opened to settlement in 1889, curtailed business and caused many changes.

LOGAN TOWNSHIP

Logan Township was formed May 2, 1874 out of parts of Bloomington and Union townships, and comprises all of Congressional township 28, range 6. The first officers were: S. m. LeMoins, trustee; T. J. Lindsey, treasurer; C. M. Price, clerk; B. H. Penn, justice of the peace; L. A. Drury, constable. The election was held at the T. L. Kalker home.

Among early settlers of what is now Logan Township were: John C. Isaac, Ben and Alonzo Jones; W. R. Burroughs, J. j. Dedrick, T. R. Kalker, W. m. Kelly, Joseph L. Potter, J. W. Shidler, W. A. McCullough, A. Luzadder, J.S. Bogle, J. M. Cotton, the Dunn family, John B. Holford, James Sears, A. J. Lightfoot, Minos West, Harry Wait, J. J. Getz and B. J. Russell. Many fine stock ranches are located in this township.

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MILTON TOWNSHIP

January 6, 1873, the county commissioners granted a petition asking that Milton Township be formed from the territory comprising Congressional township 24, range 3, east. C. P. Strong was elected trustee; G. H. Sanders, treasurer; G. W. Carter, clerk; B. Clouce and H. H. Storms, justices of the peace; E. J. Powell and Charles Barker, constables.

Milton Township, named for its first settler, Milton C. Snorf, is a block of 36 square sections. The late Dr. John Horner, and Austin M. Brumback, who spent his boyhood in the township and returned there seven years ago to be with his 97-year-old mother, are the township’s historians. Dr. Horner wrote that Milton C. Snorf settled in 1868 on the northeast quarter of section 36. In 1870 came the families of James Coolidge, Doctor DeTalente, Oliver P. Brumback, Bayless Cloud, A. Blair, Martin Brenner, James Robinson, John Jones, Lon Ghwartney, Walter Newberry, Ed. Strasser, A. G. Laughliln, E. T. Eaton, George Carter, H. Holden, B. C. Leveridge, A. Fullerton, Charles Barker, L. C. White, George Ogden, E. J. Powell, Sam Thomas, the Neimans, Storms, Hosses, Harders, Sparks, Hersheys. B. C. Leveridge was appointed postmaster of Holden and was succeeded by E. T. Eton who moved the office to Brainerd in 1886.

Towanda was the nearest post office in 1869-70. The nearest railroad was at Emporia, 70 miles distant. Antelope, deer and prairie chicken abounded.

Mrs. E. T. Eaton taught the first term of school in what later was District 95; Holden school house was built later, in 1871. At the Holden literary society meetings, The Holden Times, a product of the society was read. A column kept the boys guessing who would be mentioned next; the paper reported farm, home and literary news.

Grasshoppers in 1874 destroyed crops and ate all vegetation, even tobacco plants and red peppers. People were not discouraged however but gratefully accepted a “carload of friendship” from the East – seed corn especially was acceptable. Many were glad to get this corn and leave a dollar in its place. The debt was cancelled in 1889 when Kansas sent East a whole train load of friendship in the way of provisions for the needy. In the spring of 1875, newly-hatched grasshoppers ruined some of the early planted corn, but the settlers were not discouraged. Fall wheat looked good. In April corn was planted and oats looked good. May: Everything growing fine. June: Oats rank, corn booming, wheat in big heads were well filled, and golden in color. Bang! The big hail storm of 1875! Trees and hedges stripped of foliage; grass flattened, windows broken, loose stock hurt, wild game killed. A sycamore board was lifted by the wind from section 22-24-3 and found near Burns. Still the settlers stayed.

In 1876, a colony of Prussian Mennonites located in the township, built large houses and barns, planted orchards, raised fine horses and cattle. They settle their own affairs, without resorting to law. About the same time several Swiss Mennonite families settled. Each group maintained a church, with service conducted in their native tongue. All are good neighbors and upright citizens.

LORDS OWNED MUCH LAND

Lord Alfred Harrison, an English subject, owned much land in Milton Township, on which were houses of similar pattern for the renters. The renters had all the hardships and many of the inconveniences of the homesteader. Some of this land was sold to real settlers. Lord Scully also owned land in Milton Township, which was leased for cash, the lessee paying taxes. Had the land been privately owned, early historians believe, it would have been improved as much as adjoining farms, thereby adding value to the township.

The First Fourth of July celebration was held on the west branch of the Whitewater, on the G. P. and I. H. Neiman place in 1871, with patriotic songs, a picnic dinner and dancing.

Edgar Bernie Brumback, later county attorney of Butler County, was the first white child born in Milton Township – on December 6, 1870. The first death was a child of Harley Patterson, in the winter of 1870.

TOWN OF BRAINERD IS BUILT

In 1885, the McPherson branch of the Missouri Pacific was built through Milton. Brainerd was quickly built and thrived until 1888 when the Rock Island railway was built forming a junction with the McPherson branch line at which junction Whitewater was platted. Chester Smith moved his house from Annelly to Whitewater in January 1888 – the first home on the townsite. Then, practically the whole town of Brainerd was put on wheels and 35 business houses and residences were moved the two and one-half miles to Whitewater.

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