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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Some of the first events: First Rock Island train through Whitewater in August 1887; first in business: G. H. Otte and S. L .Motter, groceries; John Eilert, general merchandise; C. H. Bruhn, blacksmith; M. M. Bishop, hotel; Mary Neiman taught the first school.

The Herald, Al M. Hendee editor, was the first newspaper. It had been the Brainerd Sun, edited by A. M. Brumback and H. McCann until R. Morrison bought and moved it to Whitewater in 1889. The first bank was moved to the new town from Brainerd in 1889. Its officers: A. H. McLain, president; A. H. McLain, Jr., vice-president; E. S. McLain, cashier. I. H. Neiman, in his own building, was first postmaster; S. L. Motter, a merchant, was assistant. Mrs. Nellie M. Godfrey, H. W. Bailey, G. W. Penner and C. H. Otte were Mr. Neiman’s successors. First rural free delivery was established in June, 1902, with Isaac Neiman first carrier and his father the substitute. George Corfman was first carrier on route two. O. C. Shay was mail carrier from the Rock Island depot before the office was established.

First school directors of Butler and Harvey District No. 95 were: John Eilerts, Joseph Weatherby and Chester Smith. Wert and Froese built the first schoolhouse. E. T. Burns and W. A. Sterling were the first grain buyers. The town was incorporated in 1889. G. H. Otte was first mayor and J. Weatherby, G. G. Coons, H. h. Weachman, Fred Breising and E. T. Burns were councilmen; William Newberry was first marshall; E. L. Neal, W. F. Wakefield and S. L. Motter formed the first board of canvassers for the election. George Brazee was first brick yard foreman. First building of Whitewater’s brick was owned by G. W. Penner and the waterworks system was sponsored by McLains, the bankers and built by John E. Ford of Newton. D. B. Shuey and H. Acker were early ministers. The Lutherans built the first parsonage.

E. T. Burns built the first elevator in 1889. It later was consolidated with the Whitewater Mill & Elevator Company. Mr. Burns was the first coal dealer. E. S. Raymond, from Brainerd, and G. H. Otte had the first drug stores. Joseph Weatherby was the first resident carpenter; I.O.O.F. the first secret order, in 1889. Henry Heigerd had the first furniture store. C. Miller was the first retired farmer to move to town. Fred Breising had the first meat market; O. E. McDowell was the first barber and the first painter. Peter E. Ashenfelter was the first lawyer. Rebekahs and Relief Corps were the first women’s organizations.

MURDOCK TOWNSHIP

Murdock Township, comprising the territory known as township 25, range 3, was organized in march, 1873, and named for Thomas Benton Murdock. In April, these officers were elected: William Spencer, trustee; W. Goodale, treasurer, J. N. Shibles, clerk; Reuben Moore and B. F. Hess, justices of the peace; B. E. Doyle and A. G. Davis, constables. W. O. Moore, member of a prominent pioneer family in 1916, wrote this early history of the township:

Anthony G. Davis, who came in 1857, was the first settler. In 1868 he had a small store in the southwest corner of the township. Goods were hauled with teams from as far away as Topeka. There were buffalo and Indians. In 1859 came Mr. Gillian, a widower, bringing one son and three daughters. The mother of the girls, his second wife, was part Cherokee Indian. In 1862, came the Atkison brothers, Benjamin, Samuel and Stephen. About the same time came the Kelly brothers, Jim, Abe and Charles. John Kelly was drowned in 1867 while swimming in the Whitewater River, four miles south of Whitewater City. In 1866 came John Folk.

In the spring of 1868, Reuben Moore, father of W. O. Moore, bought for $100 a quarter-section of homestead land on the Whitewater, on which stood, down by the creek, a little log house. Buffalo were hunted for winter meat near the present location of Wichita. Sometimes deer, antelope or a wild turkey, were killed. Failing these, a fat raccoon or opossum would answer for a roast. There were thousands of prairie chickens. W. O. Moore recalled having counted 19 antelope in one bunch on the divide between the Whitewater and the West Branch. Of other experiences Mr. Moore wrote:

In 1870 the Whitewater overflowed. We left the log cabin about 10 o’clock one night and the next morning the water was half way to its roof. Then father decided to build on higher ground. Lumber was brought from Emporia and, for the times, a fine house was built, one and one-half stories.

The next summer the young people decided that a dance must be given at the house. Dancing was a popular amusement. Rain fell most of the day but a large crowd gathered. Again it rained, and rained until daylight and until daylight we danced. At daybreak a trip was made to the creek. It was bank full. As nearly all the guests lived across the creek, all returned to the house. That night the

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Dance was continued and all stayed another night. The girls occupied the upstairs and the boys the downstairs. The next morning the creek was nearly bank full. Some lumber had been left from the building and a canoe was made in which the girls were taken across the creek. Reuben and Carl Moore took their places in the boat and started off a high bank. When they had gone 200 yards, a swift current was encountered, the boat capsized and the boys had to struggle to swim back to shore. Rebuen lost his pocketbook and $15. That night the tired crowd retired at midnight, but some of the boys, awakening later, called the fiddler, the music began at “Balance all;” down came the girls and another round of dancing was had. This always was called the protracted dance.

Among other early settlers of Murdock Township were Edwin Hall, 1868; William Paul, 1869, Leonard Shafer, 1868; Mr. Dorsey and family, Mr. Blankenship and Charles Mornhenwig, came in 1869. John Miller, Henry Dohren, Thomas Ohlsen, Dave Kehl and Charley Diemart, Robert Taylor, Joseph Claypool, Henry Terbush and the Goodales came in 1870. A. L. Drake, Isaac Curtin, Jim Shibles, 1871; Bill in Spencer and Barney Doyle in 1871. William McCraner, who came in 1870, located in Milton township, just outside of Murdock, and was the first postmaster of Caribou. William McCraner, Jr., and myself made many a boast of how much prairie we could break with four or five yoke of oxen.

In the winter of 1869 a little log school house was built. O. W. Belt and Charles R. Noe were the first teachers.

In the spring of 1868 an Indian scare took all of us to El Dorado, where we stayed two or three days. Bill Avery said of this occasion, that when he returned home everything seemed so peaceful and quiet, he was ashamed to look his cows in the face.

Rev. Isaac Mooney was the first to preach in the vicinity. He rode from Towanda on horseback. Few attended at the start – no one to help with the singing. Some would remain on the outside, especially the cowboys, their revolvers buckled around them and seemingly more afraid of the preacher than of a herd of buffalo. But in time all went inside.

In my time here I have heard young men from the East say they would not stay if given the whole county. I have heard the early settlers say the land would be stock range forever, and time spent in trying to farm these prairies was wasted. That these were mistaken opinions is evidenced by the prosperous farmers and fertile farms of this valley. Often my mind goes back to the’60’s when everyone was a friend, when no selfishness was among us, and those seem the best days of my life.

HISTORIC CEMETERY IN MURDOCK

William Joseph Houston, who arrived from his native North Carolina in Butler County on August 1, 1879, settling in Murdock Township, had no intention of locating when he came. “There was nothing in this section except grass, grass, grass,” he said. “I was however, impressed with the apparent happiness of the pioneer and resolved to become one. They were the happiest people on earth. I’d like to live it all over again.”

Across a creek north of the Houston home is a cemetery containing three graves, surround by a rock wall. This is the story: Long before 1879, the Johnson family had a dugout on the creek bank that is now a part of the Houston land. The Johnsons were buffalo hunters, making their money from hides and furs. The parents died of smallpox and were buried by their sons, who then left with wagon and oxen for Cowskin Creek to kill bison. Out on the prairies, they ran out of food. One brother returned to the dugout for flour. When he failed to reappear on the hunting grounds, the other brother made the tedious trip back to the dugout and there found him dead upon the floor, an Indian’s arrow through his heart. The brother was buried beside the parents. The surviving brother then joined one of the many caravans of Arkansawyers and Southerners crossing this country on the way to California.

PROSPECT TOWNSHIP

Prospect Township was organized April 1, 1872, from territory comprising township 26, range 6, and at the residence of William Shepherd, on April 20, 1872, these officers were elected: S. White, trustee; William Sample; treasurer; S. D. Andrews, clerk; V. M. Pruden and R. P. Edington, justices of the peace; Napoleon Chrisham and J. B. Sherman, constables.

Boundaries of the township afterwards were changed, presumably to permit citizens to assist El Dorado in procuring the F. E. & W. V. railroad, giving the township one mile of the railway. The township contains the town of Pontiac. The

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soil is adapted to all kinds of agriculture and stock raising. A stone quarry furnishes considerable employment.

The first patent under the homestead laws was issued September 30, 1869, to Sarah C. Saxby, for the Saxby heirs, on land in sections 4 and 5. Amos A. Lawrence had issued script of land warrants on about 2,100 acres in 1865.

Among the early homesteaders of Prospect were William Crimble, who homesteaded the present county farm; H. K. and James Johnson, Abe Musselman, Elias Hinkle, Cornelius Koble, George C. Haver, Henry Martin, J. J. Donnelly, Charles Eckel, John S. Friend, Frank Cour, J. B. Sherman, Rev. Phineas Hathaway, Bemis Brothers, J. E. McCully, John Teter and William Bailey.

PLEASANT TOWNSHIP

Pleasant Township was organized March 11, 1873, out of the territory known as township 28, range three. These officers were elected at the home of Thomas McKnight: A. H. Dunlap, trustee; J. E. Milton, treasurer; E. J. Pyle, clerk; N. W. Runnells and H. G. Russell, justices of the peace; James Stroup and Sam Allen, constables.

In July 1871, J. F. Glendenning and Byron McKinney traveled over several counties, including Butler, Sedgwick, Summer, Cowley, Wilson, Howard, and Greenwood in a prairie schooner. Not finding any place as enchanting as Butler County, they located in Pleasant Township.

Glendenning wrote: The first man we met in Pleasant was Henry Freeman. We camped for dinner on a creek adjoining Mr. Freeman’s corn field, and bought a bushel of corn from him for 25 cents. (Mr. Freeman was a Union soldier during the Civil War. He reared ten children. Miss Lizzie Freeman married Byron McKinney. She was a splendid wife and he was one of the best men I ever knew. We lived on adjoining farms 20 years.)

We camped the first night at Mr. Lane’s, father of George Lane, ex-clerk of the district court of Butler County.

DISASTROUS FIRE

The next man we met was Ephraim Yeager, who had just built a frame house to shelter his wife and two baby girls. However, in October, a prairie fire burned his house with all its contents and about $300 in money. The fire devastated the country, burning houses, stables, cows, horses, wagons and hay. Mr. Yeager was an Indian fighter in Oregon and California and also a veteran of the Union Army. It was in this fire that Mr. Herod, a school teacher, lost his life. His clothes were almost burned off but he managed to reach Eight Mile Creek, near where the father of Marion Jones, lived. They took care of him the best they could but he died four days later.

One day, as we approached the little creek of Eight Mile, we discovered an open shed. We walked inside and found a young bachelor by the name of Osborn, with a broken leg, but not complaining. He said that Dr. Hill had been there and reduced the fracture and some of his near neighbors were caring for him.

Among pioneers was the family of Rev. A. H. Dunlap. The family organized an orchestra and gave splendid music at our literary society at Old Harmony school house, which was destroyed by a tornado, March 31, 1892. L S. Dunlap was a trustee of the township.

On the banks of the beautiful stream of Four Mile Creek resided the families of Nathan Hide and the Russells. The Russell girls were some of Butler County’s best teachers. There also lived John Q. Chase, a trustee several years, and John Kibby, the cattle king of the township.

A name that will live long in the minds and hearts of the good people of Pleasant Township is Theodore McKnight, noted for his good words and works. He lived with his daughter, Mrs. Nathan Chance, one of the strong characters for purity and uprightness of Augusta. One of his sons, Thomas McKnight, of Pleasant Township, was a veteran solider of the Union army. With energy and indomitable will, he succeeded in building a fine home. W. A. McKnight, another son, was one of the strong men of the township. His daughter Ola, married Will Commings, Jr., who made a success in life.

Another substantial citizen was Joe Hall. Mrs. Hall was his equal in stability of character. Joe was wounded in the Civil War. T. F. Hall was another of the substantial citizens. His wife was the daughter of Captain Webb, and sister of U.S. Webb, later attorney general of California.

There was the Webb Reynolds family, always helpful in improving the community. They really enjoyed frontier life, and were happy at all times. The Matt Skinner family helped make Pleasant Township. Mrs. Skinner was one of Butler’s best school teachers. The William Cummingses reared two girls and seven boys. And

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there was another man true to the principles of democracy, that dear old boy, Cale John. The Billowes, Prays, Pyles, Dinnets, Johnstons and Marion Franklin located in what is now Pleasant Township in 1869.

PLUM GROVE TOWNSHIP

What now is Plum Grove Township was first settled in the spring of 1857, when a colony from Douglass County, Kansas, settled in the spring of 1857, when a colony from Douglass County, Kansas, settled along the Whitewater River at the ford on the California Trail which started at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and united with the Santa Fe Trail near Hutchinson. This colony platted a town called Whitewater City, building log houses which afterwards were torn down and moved to claims of later settlers along the Whitewater River and its tributaries. All of the original settlers left during the drought of 1860.

Joseph H. Adams, who was the first man to make permanent settlement in Plum Grove Township, came from Dwight County, Illinois. It is tradition that he was the first white man ever to make the trip from Emporia to the Whitewater River in northwest Butler County. At that time, the river was called White Woman River by the Indians, because so the story goes, they once had slain a white woman and thrown her body into the stream. Mr. Adams located one mile southwest of the present Potwin, in the spring of 1860. He lived there until fall, moved to Whitewater City and spent the winter, and then moved to the northeast quarter of section 7, where his death occurred in October, 1875. Mr. Adams’ wife had died in 1868, after which he married Mrs. Margaret Pitzer, of Chase County. After the death of Mr. Adams, his widow married M. S. Bond, in 1879. She died in 1911. Mr. Adams’ son, J. A. Adams was born in Plum Grove Township in 1874. His son, J. C. Adams, homesteaded the northwest quarter of section 19 in Plum Grove.

TRAGEDY IN A BUFFALO HUNT

Harriet, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Adams, married Charles Lyon, who had staked a claim on the prairie land that later was part of Plum Grove Township, three miles northwest of Potwin, which was not founded until twenty-six years later. The baby daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lyon was Eliza Jane, who later married George Lyon and still is living in El Dorado. When little Eliza Jane was two months old, her father, Charles Lyon, left the cabin home one morning with James R. Mead, noted Indian trader, Bill Badley and J. Mercer, to hunt bison west of Wichita. The hunters were caught in the big snow of 1861. Mr. Lyon died of exposure. His companions buried the body in the highest snowdrift they could find, and marked the snow-grave with a stone. Six days later, they managed to get back to the young widow and tell the tragic story. When spring came, the hunters retraced their trail, futilely seeking the body of Mr. Lyon. Later the widow and her two brothers traversed every inch of the territory the hunters had covered, hoping, vainly, for a trace of the body. Five years later Mrs. Lyon married John. R. Wentworth, who made final proof on the Lyon homestead.

NAMED FOR THICKET OF PLUMS

The first postoffice in the township was Plum Grove, located on the original Lyon claim, the home of Mr. and Mrs. John R. Wentworth. Mr. Wentworth was the first postmaster and the office – and township- were named for a thicket of plums that grew near the Wentworth house. This postoffice was established in the fall of 1871 and was supplied with mail from Towanda, at first once a week and afterwards twice each week. In 1872, Drake & Lobdell established the first general merchandise store in the township. After the railroad bonds were voted and a railroad seemed certain, the stores and postoffices were moved over on the proposed line of the road. A mail route was established from Peabody to Holden, in Milton Township, and Oliver P. Brumback, a Civil War veteran, walked and carried the mail. Later the route was changed to run from Newton to El Dorado and another postoffice established at the W. H. Randall home. The office, named Ayr, later was moved to Potwin and the name changed to Potwin.

LAND IS QUICKLY TAKEN

On January 1, 1870, there were forty quarter-sections of government land open for homesteading. Charles Coppins placed his homestead entry on the southwest quarter of section 26 in the spring of 1871 and that was the last vacant government land in Plum Grove. Mrs. Coppins was an angel of mercy in the community, as nurse for the sick. No matter how dark or stormy the night, no matter how cold or hot the weather, Mrs. Coppins responded to every call of distress. It was the same whether the sick lived in dugouts or the best houses. Mr. and Mrs. Coppins were parents of H. A. J. Coppins of El Dorado.

Vacant school land had been settled in 1870 by C. V. Cain and W. J. Johnson. Of the original 1870 homesteaders, John H. Poffinbarger, Civil War veteran, lived longest on his homestead. The first school house, built in 1872, was on the hill

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Between Whitewater River and Diamond Creek and was known as Plum Grove District. In the spring of 1871, Dan M. Elder bought a saw mill at El Dorado, moving it first to Plum Grove and then farther on down the Whitewater River.

FRED REMINGTON IN PLUM GROVE

In the early days, persons who later became celebrities, came to this section. One was Fred Remington, who became a painter and cartoonist, achieving international fame for his portrayals of the cowboy, Indian and scenes of the wild and woolly west. It was for this study and inspiration that Remington came to Plum Grove Township as a youth. William Sandifer of El Dorado was among his friends.

POTWIN PLATTED IN 1885

Potwin was platted in 1885 and named for Charles W. Potwin, who owned the land where the town was located. The McPherson branch railroad was completed through Potwin that year. The town of Plum Grove then was divided, part of the business men and residents going to Brainerd and part to Potwin.

In 1884, when the El Dorado, Newton & McPherson railroad was under consideration, the company asked Plum Grove Township to vote bonds and take $20,000 in stock in the railroad, which was done, the township receiving stock certificates for its bonds. The road was built in 1885, but after a few years went into the hands of a receiver and was sold to satisfy a mortgage; the township lost its stock.

EARLY SETTLERS AND INCIDENTS

Amos Adams and his wife, Nancy, homesteaded on the northwest of section 30, in 1866. Mr. Adams died in April of 1904. Mrs. Adams died in El Dorado, September 19, 1914. Among others who came in the late sixties and early seventies, were M. S. Eddy, Charles Johnson, James Turner, Thomas Commons, William Dennis, Ben Ogden, William Doornbos, William Powers, Ed and Hoyt Ketchum, Henry Brown, George Mann, Frank Troxel, William Montgomery, Frank Jones, Nathan Duncan, Milton Bradley, James Stuart, Sam Crow, John Cave, James Ledbetter, Jesse Smith, Robert DeYarman, Squire Smith, John H. Odor, William Watkins, James Jones, Allen and Henry Atrible, Silas Hall, Jacob Holderman, Joseph Morton, the L. B. Cains, Howes, the Poffinbargers, Odors, Poes, Corneliuses, Coles, Stephen, Wentworth, Sam Karner, J. L. Green and Henry Comstock, for whom Henry Creek was named.

Some of the early settlers who did not secure and occupy homesteads were Waitman F. Joseph and four sons, William I., James, Moses N. and Sidney. The father came in 1871, also William I., and bought a large tract of the best land in the valley. They were reliable and substantial citizens and their children and grandchildren are following in their footsteps. The Josephs were from West Virginia. M. D. L. Kimberlain came from Kentucky in 1871 and bought land on the east branch of the Whitewater.

Fannie Hull Wilson taught different schools in Butler County, including Blue Mound. She was an A-1 teacher and many of her students later taught successfully with no other preparation than Mrs. Wilson’s instruction. Among these were Charles, Fred, Anna and Myrtle Lobdell.

Newcomers in 1870-71 were occupied with preparing a place to live. Consequently it was 1872 before they became acquainted, by attending literary societies and religious meetings at different school houses.

Charles V. Cain, to whom should go the credit for preserving the early history of this township, wrote that he had known Dr. J. A. McKenzie to leave El Dorado, drive to the Cain home in Plum Grove, from there to Cole Creek and on to the head of the Walnut and back to El Dorado, making a circuit of nearly 100 miles in one drive, with horse and buggy. Mr. Cain also records that in 1876, 20-year-old twin Mennonite brothers, named Dick, stopped at his house one night en route to Elbing from El Dorado. They had become frightened because of an approaching storm. The rain did not reach the Cain home. The cloud rained out on the head of the Whitewater. Next morning, the boys hitched up and started home. When they drove into the ford on the Whitewater, team, wagon and all were washed downstream and the boys were drowned.

Charles Stewart, born in 1860, was the first child born in Plum Grove Township. He died the same year. The first death, was that of 23-year-old George Adams, son of Joseph Adams in 1864. Eliza Jane Lyon, granddaughter of the first setter, Joseph Adams, was born December 20, 1860, the second white girl child born in Butler County. The first wedding in Plum Grove Township was that of Nancy M. Pitzer and John C. Adams, in 1871.

ROSALIA TOWNSHIP

Rosalia Township, formed from a part of El Dorado Township in 1871, had

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