Wichita Township Sedgwick County Kansas Genealogy Trails

Wichita

Wichita was organized 1870, by A. T. Lonsberry. Probably the first settler who built within the limits of Wichita Township, was Jesse Chisholm, a half breed, who came here with a band of Wichita Indians, in 1864, and built a cabin and trading post on the creek called after his name. What is now the township limits was, until 1869, the frequent resort of frontiersmen and hunters, coming and going as interest diverted them. But in 1869, the pioneer settlers began to seek this valley. Among them were: Doc. Lewellan, C. C. Allison, George E. Clark, John Ward, J. L. Rowton, James Eaman, David and Samuel Hoover, John Falkenstein, Isaac Elder, Charles W. Hill, John Meagher and father, Charles Hunter, Caleb Teter and William L. Polk. Following closely, and in the spring of 1870, came A. J. Cook, William Finn, J. S. Mitchell, A. T. Lonsberry, George Lamphere, J. B. Fenton, N. A. English, Julius Johnson, Harry Smith, Joshua Smith, William Smith and others. The first bridge constructed in the county was built by labor subscription, the total cash outlay being ten dollars. It was built upon the site of the one now spanning Chisholm Creek, at the northeast suburb of the city. The first and second school districts then included the entire county. Buffalo, deer and antelope were to be had within sight. The entire township is valley, with the exception of a few sections on the rise east of Chisholm Creek. It is sub-irrigated and is unqualifiedly the garden spot of Kansas. It never fails, with proper care, to produce a crop, and withstands the severest droughts. A confirmation of this is, that in 1868, during the prevalence of hot winds that caused a failure of crops throughout the State, army officers, at Fort Hays, unable to procure even hay for their animals, sent down men and tools to cut hay in this valley, and to procure vegetables from the Indian women, whose "squaw patches" are yet traceable between the rivers and upon Greiffenstein's land, north of the city. The township abounds in elegant farm houses, barns, granaries, and is a wilderness of well-cared-for orchards, bearing an abundance and variety of fruit. Grapes and peaches are prolific, while vegetables of all kinds succeed well. Truly here "you have but to tickle the ground with a hoe, and it laughs into a crop." The township has four schoolhouses. Each district has a church organization. It is watered by the two Arkansas rivers and Chisholm Creek, with a race on the north carrying the waters of the Little Arkansas into Chisholm Creek, the latter emptying into the Big Arkansas, a few miles south of town. A fine water power has thus been created that might run, if properly handled, mills for a number of manufactories. A large flouring mill, built by H. W. Lewis, has been in active operation for over a year, upon one of the many sites this grand water privilege affords. Population, 931; valuation of property, $331,940. (William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, Sedgwick County, Part 2, Township Sketches)