Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Susan B. Allen Bio

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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as first officers, elected April 8, 1871: R. Huston, trustee; S. Woodman, clerk; H. Wagner, treasurer; H. C. Stevens, justice of the peace; D. R. Blankenship, constable, and William Bailey, road overseer.

NAMED FOR ROSALIA STEVENS

Rosalia Township took its name from that of the first postoffices in that section. H. C. Stevens and his uncle, J. M. Stevens, came from Mendota, Illinois, filed on and improved homesteads. The postoffice was located at H. C. Stevens’ home, the happy thought of honoring his wife occurred to him and he named it Rosalia – her given name.

The town of Rosalia was platted in 1883 by G. W. Chamberlain and F. G. Miller.

First settlers of Rosalia Township came in 1868 but did not stay. Those who established homes are: 1869 – D. R. Blankenship, Phil Korn, Robert Huston, Sam Woodward, J. G. Cook; James B. Correll and George Auten; 1870 – A. P. Foster, S. H. Foster, Hiram Benedict, Gus Raymond, Mr. Tuttle, Dick Wiley, Samuel Davidson (who built the first house on the high prairie between Eureka and El Dorado), William Woods, J. T. McClure, L. W. Decker, Nelson Surplus, James and J. P. Huntley, Elias Leh, Fred Miller, G. W. Chamberlain, Charles Butler, the Shermans and N. B. Snyder; 1871 – George McDaniels, Robert Martin and Doc Reynolds. George Songer and family came in 1871; Walter Clark, M. M. Piper and his sons, Charles, Allen, Will, Dan, and Val, in 1872.

CARRIED FLOUR THIRTEEN MILES

Nelson Surplus, having no conveyance, in 1871 carried a sack of flour home from El Dorado, at least thirteen miles and was glad to get it that way. The biscuits tasted mighty good, so he said. His daughter, Miss Mary, the first white girl born in Rosalia, was one of the county’s foremost teachers. Forman Cook ws the first boy born in the township.

D. R. Blankenship drove his stake on his farm on the north branch of the Little Walnut in November 1869. He and his wife and baby began the battle the December following. Their possessions were two horses, a wagon and $50. One horse died. Preacher Small sold him some of Charley Noe’s corn and Elias Bishop of Chelsea sold him some corn, all for 75 cents the bushel. Edward Jeakins, south of El Dorado, parted with two bushels of potatoes for $4.50. J. G. Cook, G. W. Miller and Robert Huston helped him build a log cabin. He roofed the cabin himself, chinked it, moved in on a dirt floor and built a fire in the stone fire place. Even the door hinges were his own make.

That residents of Rosalia Township still retain their early day comradery and generosity is shown in an incident of November 1934. A few days after L. K. Seglem, living four miles south of Rosalia, was injured when the ensilage cutter in his silo blew up, and had entered Allen Memorial Hospital for treatment, thirty-two men and thirteen women, all neighbors and friends, went to his place and filled his silo. The women – members of Rosalia Aid Society – served a dinner. Carl Lucas furnished a tractor for power for the ensilage cutter, which was provided by Otis Gray. Six other men furnished corn binders. The silo was filled in short order and Mr. Seglem was saved from worry about his stock feed for winter months.

RICHLAND TOWNSHIP

(Myra E. Hull)

Richland Township forms the southwest corner of Butler County, thus being the center of that rich farm region now comprising Butler, Cowley, Sedgwick, and sumner counties. The first white settlement in the township was made in the summer of 1868 by John Strock, James Olmstead, and Harve Henderson. The following year Andrew Liddle, M. G. Jones, and H. Kellems added their cabins to the settlement on Eight Mile Creek. This stream, beautifully wooded with walnut, locust, sycamore, redbud, and sumac, winds diagonally across the township from northwest to southeast. Those first settlers, who had come through the bare Flint Hills region in eastern Butler County were delighted with the valleys of the Walnut Hills region in eastern Butler County were delighted with the valleys of the Walnut River and Eight Mile Creek, although except for these streams, the unbroken prairie stretched as far as the eye could see, without a sign of human habitation.

Occasionally, cowboys with herds of longhorn cattle passed through the region on their way to Abilene, through Wichita. L. D. Himebaugh speaks of having seen these herds almost daily as late as the summer of 1870, after which the increase of settlers interfered, forcing the trail west of the Arkansas River to Dodge City. K. M. Holcomb in his recent book, Pioneers, relates a most interesting account of the stampeding of a herd of longhorns by a group of children who had been menaced by them while returning home from school.

L. D. Himebaugh, who preempted a claim in southern Richland in 1870, and

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became one of its foremost citizens, writes in Mooney’s History of Butler County:

“Deer, antelope, wild turkey, and raccoons were quite numerous, affording both sport and meat in their capture. Mr. Couch and his sons (later of Oklahoma fame) would often indulge in that sport, between the Walnut and the Arkansas. The writer well remembers when at one time his newly made garden suffered a tramping up by two does and a buck, leading four hounds, followed by several broncos and riders who never so much as halted to offer an apology for their instrusion.”

Dick Reed, who also came to Richland in 1870, taking land on Eight Mile Creek, enjoyed several buffalo hunts in the valley of the Arkansas River.

Exports at this time consisted principally of hides from longhorn cattle that had failed to weather the winter, furs of mink, otter, wolf, and raccoon, an occasional deer pelt, and feathered game. These were wagoned to Emporia, the nearest railway station, and exchanged for farm machinery, food supplies, and other necessities. Common hardships drew these early settlers together. Each man shared freely his meager store with his neighbor. “The latch string was always out, and it was not considered trespassing for one neighbor to stop and get feed for his horse and himself, in the absence of the proprietor.”

The community was, for the most part, a quiet, law abiding one, but eastern Richland and Douglass townships were for a number of years infested by a gang of horse thieves with accomplices just over the border in the Indian Territory. Growing tired of these depredations, a Vigilantes committee was organized and in November of 1870, four of the suspected men were quietly spirited from their homes and hanged. Within a month four more were dispatched, and the work of the Vigilantes was over.

Before 1870, the region bordering Butler County on the south was that part of the Indian Territory known as the “Thirty Mile Strip,” or diminished Osage Indian Reserve. Across the southern part of what is now Cowley County there also extended a three mile strip, reserved as a pathway for the Cherokees on their westward hunting trips. A great Osage trail spread across Cowley County to the Flint Hills. Bands of begging Indians often roved across the border into Richland Township, and there were frequent rumors of Indians on the warpath, but they were all false. One such rumor spread by a couple of practical jokers caused all the men, women, and children to leave their homes and flee to the woods and hills in Douglass Township. But the Indians did no harm, except petty pilfering and begging. One of the earliest recollections of the writer is of the visit of an Indian, who came to her home begging for flour, “chicky,” and “hoggy meat.”

July 15, 1870 is one of the most important dates in the history of southern Butler, for on that day the government, having acquired the Osage lands through treaties, opened the region to settlement. A flood of immigration followed, chiefly from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and North Carolina, many of the newcomers stopping to make their homes in the rich valleys of the Walnut River and Eight Mile Creek.

One of the first of these settlers to arrive was E. Copeland, who settled in section 35, and became wealthy as a grower of Merino sheep. In the same year H. B. Ferguson took a claim in section 31 and Levi Williams in section 5.

In 1872 James McCluggage preempted the land in a mile south of the site of Rose Hill, where he built a house that is still the McCluggage place. The same year the Turner Holcomb family arrived from Indiana and settled in the south-central part of the township, their home becoming one of the most hospitable ones in the township. In the same year, also, B. M. Hodgin built his bachelor claim house west of the site of the Friends Church. His house became a center for all community gatherings, political meetings, revival meetings, or old-fashioned country dances. After his marriage, to Leota Hodgin, he built an attractive cottage, which is now the home of their daughter, Mrs. Rudolph Nelson, and her family. R. L. Hodgin, B. M. Hodgin’s brother, took land just south of the Friends Church, of whose congregation he was a devoted member until his death, in 1933.

In March, 1873, Lewis B. Hull and family preempted a claim in section 10 of Richland Township, later moving to section 11, where he built a house, planted a blue grass lawn with a hundred rosebushes, and an orchard with every manner of fruits. After Mr. Hull’s death, in 1902, his son, O. J. Hull, occupied the farm until it was sold in 1912.

L. B. Hull’s brother, John Hull, took the land just west of the Diamond School site; and Mrs. L. B. Hull’s brother, Tom Sinclair, built his home a mile farther west.

Section 1 was occupied in 1874, by J. H. Hodge, who had come with his family and the Tate family from Tennessee.

Previous to 1874, Richland Township was a part of Douglass Township, but in

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January of that year it became a separate political unit. H. B. Furgeson seems to have been the man who first suggested the name “Richland.” The first township election was held April 19, 1874, in a claim house owned by Mrs. Snodgrass. The first election board was composed of Smith Goodspeed, F. Fleck, M. H. Lee, J. H. Lowery, and L. D. Himebaugh. The first township officers were as follows: L. B. Hull, trustee; B. M. Hodgin, clerk; A. J. Cramer, treasurer; Smith Goodspeed and J. Vanhouton, justices; and F. Fleck and John Oldham, constables. Several of these men served as township officers a number of times in the next decade. L. B. Hull was trustee for six or eight years, and L. D. Himebaugh also served several terms in that office, as did James McCluggage and B. M. Hodgin. The best known justice of the peace was Smith Goodspeed, who handed down several memorable decisions. Other justices were H. B. Furgeson, L. D. Himebaugh, James Walton, J. H. Price, H. C. Staley, John Oldham, L. B. Hull, and the Rev. Mr. Woodward. Three early county commissioners were chosen from Richland Township – Lafe Stone, A. Masterson, and L. B. Hull. (John Davies, son of a Richland pioneer, is now serving as county commissioner.)

The year 1873 was fairly productive one, and those who stored up grain were particularly fortunate, for in August of 1874, following a severe drought, came the grasshopper plague, the theme of more jeremiads than any other in Kansas, with the possible exception of the Border Warfare. How these pests swarmed in great clouds, darkening the sun like an eclipse, and then swooped down upon fields and gardens, devouring everything and leaving behind desolation and despair, is a matter of history.

Not quite so well known, however, is the story of the aid that was sent to the devastated regions from the East, during the “aid winter” of 1874-1875. Augusta being the county supply headquarters, everything was sent there and was then apportioned to the different township committees, who distributed it to the respective townships. The aid distributing point for Richland Township was the home of Deacon Harris, one mile west of the center of the township: “Here,” says Mr. Himebaugh, “nearly all the Richlanders met on the first and third Saturdays of each month, more to see each other than to receive aid….The style of wearing apparel placed on exhibition for distribution caused much amusement. They were the cast off garments of forty years ago, gathered from attics “way down East,” such as old Shaker and pasteboard bonnets, stovepipe hats with ventilators in the top, homespun dress skirts, striped threadbare shawls, and swallow-tailed, cutaway coats. There were many ludicrous misfits, when the garments were tried on. Women with dainty feet flapped about in huge brogans, and small boys looked like scarecrows in long coats of grown-ups. The food sent for distribution was more appropriate, consisting of corn meal, flour, sugar, beans, coffee, bacon, and dried fruit.

One of the greatest blessings was the congressional donation of seeds, the best in the country, for planting in the spring of 1875. Within ten years Richland Township donated, in turn, a car load of corn to the Ohio Valley flood sufferers.

TOADS INVADE TOWNSIHP

A few years after the grasshopper plague, another invasion occurred, which, so far as the writer knows, has never been recorded, yet it is unique and it belongs particularly to Richland Township. Mrs. L. B. Hull told the incident after this fashion: “One morning Bob Hodgin dropped in at our house with the surprising announcement, “the toads are coming!” He led the way to the Diamond School section line road, and sure enough, there they came! Millions of toads swarmed down the road, covering it from hedge to hedge, filling the wagon tracks, pouring steadily eastward. My small son, Myron, filled a bucket with them, whirled them around, and then poured them out into the road again. Every toad righted himself, and facing the east, continued his steady march. For days the migration swept by. Nothing could turn them from their course. They popped and crunched under the wagon wheels, the ruts running with blood. Their invasion was harmless, for they always kept to the road. Whence they came and whither they went, nobody ever knew. But the toads knew!”

Richland Township during the pioneer days was swept by several destructive fires, usually caused by Indians firing the prairies along the southern border of the state. Mr. Himebaugh relates that in October of 1871 one of these fires spread over the township, destroying much property and causing one death, that of George Cliue, who was fatally burned while trying to save his claim shanty from the flames.

But in sprite of fire, drought, grasshopper plagues, hog cholera epidemics, and mortgages, the people of Richland were, for the most part, prosperous and happy. Jake Van Buskirk, in answer to someone’s question about the hardships of the pioneer period, once explained it thus: “Well, sir, it was just this way: Our garments

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waxed not old in those days, and we subsisted principally on grasshoppers, buffalo meat, dead prairie chickens, jack rabbits, slippery elm bark, and catfish.”

In spite of hard times, these pioneers managed to enjoy life. Society knew no class distinctions, for all were alike poor. Some of the most popular young bachelors wore paper collars, because linen ones were too expensive. Parties and dances were frequent at the claim shanties, which were open alike to gay festivities and revival meetings. Literary societies also flourished. The first of these in the township was organized at the John Gardner home, December 14, 1872, the organizers being Miss Maria Walton (later Mrs. L. D. Himebaugh), Mrs. John Weston and her daughter, Jennie (Mrs. James McCluggage), Smith Goodspeed, and John Gardner. This was principally a debating society, such questions as “female” suffrage, the credit system, and the herd law being discussed. The participants were Messrs. Gardner, Goodspeed, Roberts, Berger, Tucker, Walker, Gayman, Stansberry, Carlton, and Furgeson, and Mrs. Weston. Meetings were held at Maple Creek School.

Soon after the completion of the Diamond School house, in 1878, a second literary society was organized “the leading lights being L. B. Hull and sons, and Messrs. Sinclair, Williams, Davis, Cox, Pickett, and Hodgin.” Vocal and instrumental music was furnished by “Beech” Hull, the Hodgin brothers, Tom Sinclair, Clara Weston, Mrs. L. B. Hull, and others.

The third literary society met at Providence, in 1883-1884, participants being Messrs. Giesy, Bannon, McKay, Work, Furgeson, and Himebaugh. Spelling matches and singing schools also furnished enjoyable evenings.

The citizens of Richland have always been greatly interested in education, but the first schools were held under great difficulties. The state law required that a newly formed district must maintain a school for three months, under a qualified teacher, before it was entitled to state school funds. The money for this term had, therefore, to be raised by subscription and some claim house donated for the school’s use. District 63 was the first to organize. The first school was taught in the spring of 1873, by Mrs. Freeman, at $15 a month, at the James Lee house, a mile and a half west of the Holcomb place. The district was very large; and as there were no roads of any kind, the patrons had a furrow run with a breaking plow, from the northwest corner of the district to the school house, to aid the pupils in getting to school.

In 1874 District 8 was organized and was the first in the township to erect a school building through the aid of bonds. In 1878, District 81 erected a building, and in the same year the fine stone school building in District 78, known as the Diamond School, was erected, where it has stood as a landmark for fifty-six years.

In less than a decade from the date of its organization, Richland Township had seven public school buildings, where school was held from three to seven months a year.

The writer regrets that she does not have a complete record of those pioneer teachers who laid so well the foundation of the educational system of the township. Well-educated men and women they were, who gave their time and effort as freely as if they had received munificent salaries instead of a meager, uncertain stipend. Mrs. Freeman, previously mentioned, was one of these early teachers, as was also L. B. Hull, who numbered among his pupils K. M. Holcomb, later to become county superintendent of public instruction. His sister, Florence Holcomb Olmstead, also held this office. She began teaching at the age of sixteen, and literally gave her life to the causes of education and reform. Many others were trained in the country schools of the township to become men and women of influence throughout the world. There was something in the training of the district schools that made for moral character and stamina, for individual thinking and initiative. They were the most democratic institutions on earth, and we have lost something precious in their passing, inevitable and necessary through the change to the consolidated schools was.

On the completion of the Santa Fe railroad from Augusta to Mulvane, the town and post office of old Rose Hill were moved a mile west, where the now thriving town of Rose Hill is located. The “new” Rose Hill district was organized in 1890. Some years later, after much agitation and planning, a $10,000 building was erected for a consolidated high school, whose first term began September, 1909, with more than two hundred students. The school has continued to improve and prosper until it is now one of the best schools of its size in the county.

Later the southern part of Richland Township formed a consolidated district, with a modern, commodious building near the site of the old Pleasant Valley School house. This, like the Rose Hill building, is a community center, where athletic

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events and literary programs are held. These two consolidated schools now accommodate all the pupils of Richland Township.

In the summer of 1872, a year before the first day schools were organized, the first Sunday School was established in the township, at the claim house of Miss Maria Walton, who, with her brothers, was the “prime mover” in the undertaking. The school was moved to the home of Mr. Hatch, and later to Maple Creek school house. A little later a Union Sunday School was organized in northern Richland by Mr. and Mrs. John Haines, H. C. Staley, and others. Mr. Green of the Methodist Church held a series of meetings at the Stansberry home. The Adventist followers also conducted meetings at the claim home of B. M. Hodgin.

In 1884, the Methodists erected the Pleasant Hill Church building, the first in the township. Two other Methodist churches were later erected at Rose Hill and at Red Bud.

In the late seventies, the Church of Christ under the leadership of Elders Harvey, Barrett and Yard, conducted several meetings. Later a building, Richland Chapel, was erected and the congregation grew under the leadership of Elders Wright, Cain, and Olmstead. Others who helped build up this church were the Sontes, Lichlyters, Holcombs, McCluggages, and Chaunceys.

The people of these first churches held firm convictions as to the doctrines of their respective churches. Debates between those of different persuasions were common, and interest often ran high. Mr. Himebaugh writes of one of these debates, which has become a matter of history because of its dramatic conclusion. The debate was held on a sultry July afternoon, in 1879, but was unceremoniously broken up by the approach of a “twister” from the southwest, the first “cyclone” in Richland Township. It struck the house of John Nichols, demolishing it but hurting no one, as the family found safety in a storm cave. The tornado continued in a northwesterly direction, filling with terror another congregation assembled at the Diamond School. The storm cloud collapsed before it reached the school house, to the great relief of the writer’s father, who from his home was watching it approach the stone school house, where his family was. From that time on, Richland Township seemed a favorite frolicking place for cyclones for many years.

QUAKER SETTLEMENT AT ROSE HILL

One of the most distinctive religious colonies in Kansas was, and is, the Society of Friends settlement at Rose Hill, in Richland and Pleasant townships. The first of these “Quakers” to come to Kansas was H. C. Staley, who came from Chatham County, North Carolina, to Emporia in 1870 and to Richland Township in 1871. The next year came Jonathan Hodgin and Milton Woody. The wives of these three men were sisters, Mary Staley, Rebecca Hodgin, and Leanna Woody, all from North Carolina. The Staley and Hodgin families settled near Rose Hill, and the Woodys in section 2, on the Eight Mile farm still in the Woody family.

The most important advent, however, was that of Michael and Rhoda Cox. (The Quakers never used the titles, Mr. and Mrs.) They too came from North Carolina and settled in 1872 a mile west of the Woody place and opposite the first Hull house.

With this nucleus, the Quaker meeting was organized, but it was not granted its own “Monthly Meeting” until 1878. In 1881 the Quaker Church was built two miles east of Rose Hill. Michael Cox was chosen as the head of the church, serving it devotedly until his death in 1892, when his son, Reuben, took his place, father and son thus guiding the congregation for more than fifty years.

The first pastor was Jonathan Ballard whose daughter, Mrs. Lou Colwell, still lives in Rose Hill, where her daughter, Mrs. Mina Silknitter, is Postmistress. Others who were instrumental in upbuilding the church were Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Davis, whose daughters Lavina, Essie, and Stella, have become community leaders; John P. Davis, a fine citizen and a faithful member; Jesse, Hannah, and Emma Stanley