“I was a prominent agent in repealing the Missouri Compromise and

opening the territory for settlement. The abolition traitors drummed up

their forces and whistled them onto the cars, and whistled them off

again at Kansas City: some of them had ‘Kansas and Liberty’ on their

hats. I saw this with my own eyes. These men came with the avowed

purpose of driving or expelling you from the territory. What did I

advise you to do? Why, to beat them at their own game. When the first

election came off I told you to go over and vote. You did so and beat

them. Well, what next? Why, an election of members of the legislature to

organize the territory must be held. What did I advise you to do then?

Why, meet them on their own ground and at their own game again: and,

cold and inclement as the weather was, I went over with a company of

men. The abolitionists of the North said, and published it abroad, that

Atchison was there with bowie-knives, and by God, it was true. I never

did go into that territory—I never intend to go into that territory—

without being prepared for all such kinds of cattle.

“They held an election on the fifteenth of last month and they intend to

put the machinery of the State in motion on the fourth of March. Now you

are entitled to my advice, and you shall have it. I say, _prepare

yourselves. Go over there._ Send your young men, and if they attempt to

drive you out, then, damn them, drive _them_ out. Fifty of you with your

shotguns are worth 250 of them with their Sharpe’s rifles. Get ready—arm

yourselves; for, if they abolitionize Kansas you lose one million

dollars of your property. I am satisfied that I can justify every act of

you before God and a jury.”

All of the pro-slavery papers were open in their advocacy of an

immediate war of extermination. The _Squatter Sovereign_ in its issue

just after the election of January 15, commenting on certain

disturbances at Easton and a murder at Leavenworth, did not condemn what

took place at Easton and had no word of apology or pity to offer for the

murdered man. On the contrary it upheld those who committed the murder

and gave them encouragement in their campaign of killing abolitionists.

Dr. Stringfellow employed his violent rhetoric to give vent to his

feelings and the opening paragraph of his leading editorial in the issue

of the _Squatter Sovereign_ he used the following language:

“It seems now to be certain that we will have to give the abolitionists

at least one good thrashing before political matters are settled in this

territory. To do so we must have arms; we have the men. I propose to

raise funds to furnish Colt’s revolvers for those who are without them.

We say if the abolitionists are able to whip us and overturn the

government that has been set up here, the sooner it is known the better,

and we want to see it settled.”

During the whole of the following winter preparations for attack and

defense went quietly on. There was drilling along the border and

disquieting rumors came from time to time of companies that had been

organized and equipped to move into Kansas as soon as spring opened to

uphold the rights of the Southerners.

Atchison county took a prominent part in the border warfare. The bold

attitude assumed by the Free State forces in and around Lawrence; the

Wakarusa war; the Free State elections, and the determination of the

Free State party to convene their legislature in March, 1856, kept the

partisan pro-slavery sentiment in Atchison in a constant tumult. In

March large numbers of South Carolina emigrants, armed and equipped with

the avowed purpose of enforcing southern rights in Kansas, arrived on

all the incoming steamboats. Capt. F. G. Palmer, of Atchison, commanded

one of the earliest if not the earliest company of these emigrants.

Robert De Treville was first lieutenant. The home company had been

formed prior to the arrival of the South Carolinians. Dr. John H.

Stringfellow was captain; Robert S. Kelley, first lieutenant; A. J. G.

Westbrook, second lieutenant, and John H. Blassingame, third lieutenant.

Their arms were supplied from Ft. Leavenworth and by the last of April

they were ready and waiting for the assault and the subsequent “sacking”

of Lawrence. The whole countryside was aflame with the passion of war.

By May 1 quite a large army of pro-slavery sympathizers was organized.

The South Carolinian Company, from Atchison, was among the first to

start the assault upon Lawrence and it was not long before “its flag was

planted upon the rifle pit of the enemy.” Dr. Stringfellow was there and

Robert S. Kelley, his able assistant on the _Squatter Sovereign_, was

also there. In an account of the assault the following appeared in the

_Squatter Sovereign_.

“The flag was carried by its brave bearer and stationed upon the Herald

of Freedom Printing office, and from thence to the large hotel and

fortress of the Yankees, where it proudly waived until the artillery

commenced battering down the building. Our company was composed mostly

of South Carolinians, under command of Capt. Robert De Treville, late of

Charleston, S. C. and we venture the prediction that a braver set of men

than are found in its ranks never bore arms.”

The _Squatter Sovereign_ continued to be without fear the most bitter

and uncompromising pro-slavery organ in the territory. Its watch-word

was “Death to all Yankees and traitors in Kansas.” At a large mass

meeting at Atchison, held in June, 1856, Robert S. Kelley, its assistant

editor, was nominated as the “Commander-in-Chief of the forces in town,”

but for some reason now lost to view Kelley declined the honor and it

was passed on to Capt. F. G. Palmer who accepted it without remorse and

without apologies. Senator Atchison was present at this mass meeting and

made a speech, and so was Col. Peter T. Abell, afterwards president of

the Atchison Town Company, and Captain De Treville, and others not so

famous, and they all made speeches.

During that summer, because of the continued activities of old John

Brown and the agitation which those activities created in the breasts of

the pro-slavery sympathizers in Atchison, another military company was

formed, called the Atchison Guards, of which John Robertson was the

commander, who was so prominent in the Battle of Hickory Point, and

Atchison county continued to take a prominent part in the border warfare

which continued for sometime thereafter. During all of this time the

Free State settlers of Atchison were very quiet and undemonstrative.

They were not strong in number and aside from a few virile souls like

Pardee Butler, they held their tongues and kept their own counsel. They

were treated with scant courtesy and consideration by their pro-slavery

neighbors, and it can be said to their credit that no set of men ever

displayed greater self-restraint or suffered more for the cause of peace

than the Free State settlers of this county. It doubtless unsettled

their minds and disturbed their slumbers to read from time to time

sentiments such as these taken from the _Squatter Sovereign_ of June 10,

1856:

[Illustration:

(Upper) Atchison Hospital. (Center) Atchison County Court House.

(Lower) Y. M. C. A.

]

“Hundreds of Free State men who have committed no overt act, but have

only given countenance to those reckless murderers, assassins and

thieves, will, of necessity, share the same fate of their brethren. If

Civil war is to be the result of such a conflict, there cannot be, and

will not be any neutrals recognized. ‘He that is not for us is against

us,’ will of necessity be the motto, and those who are not willing to

take either one side or the other are the most unfortunate men in Kansas

and had better flee to other regions as expeditiously as possible. They

are not the men for Kansas.”

In another issue Dr. Stringfellow said:

“The abolitionists shoot down our men without provocation wherever they

meet them. Let us retaliate in the same manner. A free fight is all we

desire. If murder and assassination is the program of the day we are in

favor of filling the bill. Let not the knives of the pro-slavery men be

sheathed while there is one abolitionist in the territory. As they have

shown no quarters to our men they deserve none from us. Let our motto be

written in blood upon our flags. ‘_Death to all Yankees and Traitors in

Kansas._’ We have 150 men in Atchison ready to start in an hour’s

notice. All we lack is horses and provisions.”

And then follows an exhortation from Dr. Stringfellow to his friends in

Missouri to contribute something that will enable his constituents to

protect their lives and their families from the outrages of the

assassins of the North, and ends by stating that the war will not cease

until Kansas has been purged of abolitionists.

Pro-slavery committees from Doniphan, Atchison and Leavenworth counties

were organized to call on their friends in the South for arms,

ammunition and provisions, and a circular letter appeared in the

_Leavenworth Herald_, and an urgent invitation was issued to all the

pro-slavery papers to give the circular wide publicity. It read, in

part, as follows:

“To our friends throughout the United States:

“The undersigned, having been appointed a committee by our fellow

citizens of the counties of Leavenworth, Doniphan and Atchison, in

Kansas Territory, to consult together and to adopt measures for mutual

protection and the advancement of the interests of the pro-slavery party

in Kansas Territory, this day assembled at the town of Atchison, to

undertake the responsible duty assigned us; and in our present emergency

deem it expedient to address this circular to our friends throughout the

union, but more particularly in the slave-holding states. * * * * The

time has arrived when prompt action is required and the interior of

Kansas can easily be supplied from various points in the above named

counties. The pro-slavery party is the only one in Kansas which pretends

to uphold the Government or abide by the laws. Our party from the

beginning has sought to make Kansas a slave state, only by legal means.

We have been slandered and vilified almost beyond endurance, yet we have

not resorted to violence, but steadily pursued the law for the

accomplishment of our objects. * * * * We have proclaimed to the world

that we recognize the principle of the Kansas Bill as just and right,

and although we preferred Kansas being made a negro slave state, yet we

never dreamed of making it so by the aid of bowie-knives, revolvers and

Sharpe rifles, until we were threatened to be driven out of the

territory by a band of hired abolitionists, brought up and sent here to

control our elections and steal our slaves. We are still ready and

intend to continue so, if our friends abroad stand by and assist us. Our

people are poor and their labor is their capital. Deprive them of that,

which we are now compelled to do, and they must be supported from

abroad, or give up the cause of the South. The Northern Abolitionists

can raise millions of dollars, and station armed bands of fanatics

throughout the territory and support them, in order to deprive Southern

men of their constitutional rights. We address this to our friends only,

for the purpose of letting them know our true condition and our wants.

We know that our call will meet a ready, willing and liberal response.

* * * * Heaven and earth is being moved in all the free states to induce

overwhelming armies to march here to drive us from the land. We are able

to take care of those already here, but let our brethren in the states

take care of the outsiders. Watch them, and if our enemies march for

Kansas let our friends come along to take care of them, and if nothing

but a fight can bring about peace, let us have a fight that will amount

to something. Send us the money and other articles mentioned as soon as

practicable, and if the abolitionists find it convenient to _bring_

their supplies, let our friends _come_ with ours. Arrangements have been

made with Messrs. Majors, Russell & Company, Leavenworth, K. T.; J. W.

Foreman & Company, Doniphan, K. T., and C. E. Woolfolk & Company,

Atchison, K. T., to receive any money or other articles sent for our

relief, and will report to the undersigned, and we pledge ourselves that

all will be distributed for the benefit of the cause. Horses, we greatly

need—footmen being useless in running down midnight assassins and

robbers.”

The following residents of Atchison county signed the circular: P. T.

Abell, chairman; J. A. Headley, A. J. Frederick, J. F. Green, Jr., C. E.

Mason.

This circular was signed June 6, 1856, and was published in the

_Lawrence Herald of Freedom_, June 14, 1856.

From this time forward the conflagration spread with ever increasing

fury, and not only did the appeals for aid from the pro-slavery forces

find immediate response, but likewise the anti-slavery forces throughout

the whole North came to the rescue of the Free Soilers in Kansas, and

during all of this great excitement Atchison county was the focal point

of pro-slavery activities. The news of the “sacking” of Lawrence served

to awaken the Nation in the North. It was at this time that Henry Ward

Beecher, with all of the great eloquence at his command, advocated from

his Brooklyn pulpit the sending of Sharpe rifles instead of Bibles to

Kansas, and pledged his own parish to supply a definite number. And on

and on they came to Kansas out of the North with determination in their

hearts and Sharpe rifles in their hands, to help the Free Soilers in

their battles against the forces of Atchison and Stringfellow and Abell.

Then came Lane’s “Army of the North,” which sounded more terrible than

it really was, following in quick succession the second battle of

Franklin; the siege and capitulation of Ft. Titus, and the famous battle

of Osawatomie. At last the mobilization of the forces of Atchison and

Stringfellow not far from the outskirts at Lawrence in September, 1856,

for the purpose of a final assault on that Free State stronghold, marked

the collapse of the Atchison-Stringfellow military campaign. It was a

critical hour for Lane. Old John Brown was there, and the citizens were

ready for whatever might befall them, but further hostilities were

averted by the action of Governor Geary on the morning of September 15,

1856, when he appeared in person in the midst of the Missouri camp

several hours after issuing a proclamation for the Missourians to

disband. He found both Senator Atchison and Gen. B. F. Stringfellow

(brother of Dr. Stringfellow) there, and in the course of his speech

severely reprimanded Atchison, who “from his high estate as Vice-

President of the United States, had fallen so low as to be the leader of

an army of men with uncontrollable passions, determined upon wholesale

slaughter and destruction.”

When Governor Geary had concluded his remarks his proclamation and order

to disband the army were read and the more judicious obeyed.

The troops thus disbanded, marched homeward. Those enlisting at Atchison

returned to Missouri by way of Lecompton. This was the last organized

military invasion from Missouri and ended the attempts of the pro-

slavery forces to rule Kansas by martial law.

It must not be concluded, however, that the Stringfellows and other pro-

slavery leaders in Atchison county were not law-abiding citizens. They

believed in the institution of slavery, as many good men of that day

did, and they had the same rights to peacefully enter the territory of

Kansas and endeavor to make it a slave State under the principle of

Squatter sovereignty, as Dr. Charles Robinson, and Lane, and John Brown

did to make the territory a free State. It would not only be unjust to

the memory of the Stringfellows and their compatriots, but unjust to

posterity also to leave the impression that they had no semblance of

justification, for many of their acts, which the impartial historian

will admit, were very frequently in retaliation of wrongs and outrages

suffered. The terrible stress and strain under which good men on both

sides labored in those critical days led them to extremes, and in the

midst of the discordant passions of good men, the bad men—those who are

the lawless of every age and clime—flourished and their lawlessness only

served to complicate the dangerous and ever threatening situation. Calm

judgment may not have been lacking in the territory in and around

Atchison and Lawrence in the days between 1854 and 1857, but if it

existed at all it was lost in the riot of partisan feeling and did not

evince itself until later.

Following the disbanding of the “Territorial” militia before Lawrence,

General Atchison seemed to have somewhat recovered his composure and in

an address to the troops after Governor Geary had retired, he said:

“As was well known to all present the gentlemen composing this meeting

had just been in conference with Governor Geary, who in the strongest

language had deprecated the inhuman outrages perpetrated by those whom

he characterized as bandits, now roving through the territory, and

pledged himself in the most solemn manner to employ actively all of the

force at his command in executing the laws of the territory and giving

protection to his beloved citizens, and who had also appealed to us to

dissolve our present organization and stand by and co-operate with him

in holding up the hands of his power against all evil doers, and who had

also retired from the meeting, with a request that he would consult and

determine what course would be taken. Now the object of the meeting was

thus to consult and determine what should be done.”

General Atchison also impressed the meeting with the solemnity and

importance of the occasion and said that it was time for men to exercise

their reason and not yield to their passions and also to keep on the

side of the law which alone constitutes our strength and protection.

These words of General Atchison breathed a far different message than

his strong language of a few years before and indicated more plainly

than anything else the general trend of pro-slavery sentiment.

After the cessation of military movements in the territory, more or less

peaceful elections, sessions of the legislature and conventions, at

which constitutions were framed and voted upon, took place, and the work

of preparing the territory to become a State went forward.

Four constitutions were framed before Kansas was admitted to the Union.

The Topeka constitution, which was the first in order, was adopted by

the convention which framed it November 11, 1855, and by the people of

the territory at an election December 15, 1855.

The Lecompton constitution was adopted by the convention which framed it

November 7, 1857, and was submitted to a vote of the people December 21,

1857, and the form of the vote prescribed was: “For the constitution,

with slavery,” and “For the constitution, without slavery.” As no

opportunity was afforded at this election to vote against the

constitution the Free State people did not participate in it. The

Territorial legislature was summoned in extra session and passed it

without submitting this constitution to a vote of the people, January 4,

1858, and at that election 138 votes were cast for it and 10,226 against

it. In spite of this overwhelming vote against the constitution it was

sent to Washington and was transmitted by President Buchanan to the

Senate who urged the admission of Kansas under it, thus starting the

great contest which divided the Democratic party, the election of

Abraham Lincoln as President, and the final overthrow of the slave

party. The bill to admit Kansas under this constitution failed, but a

bill finally passed Congress, under the provisions of which the

constitution was again submitted to the people August 4, 1858, with the

result that there were 1,788 votes cast for it and 11,300 votes cast

against it.

The convention which framed the Leavenworth constitution was provided

for by an act of the Territorial legislature, passed in February, 1858,

at which time the Lecompton constitution was pending in Congress. The

Leavenworth constitution was adopted by the convention April 3, 1858,

and by the people May 18, 1858.

The Wyandotte constitution was adopted by the convention which framed it

July 29, 1859, and adopted by the people October 4, 1859. It was under

the Wyandotte constitution that the State was admitted into the Union

January 29, 1861.

In this last convention Atchison county played a very important part.

Three members were sent from this county: Caleb May, to whom reference

has been made before, a farmer, born in Kentucky, and residing near the

now abandoned townsite of Pardee; John J. Ingalls, a lawyer at Sumner,

who arrived in Kansas from Massachusetts, October 4, 1858, exactly one

year previous to the adoption of the constitution by the people of the

Territory, and Robert Graham, a merchant at Atchison, who was born in

Ireland. John A. Martin, the editor of _Freedom’s Champion_, the

successor to the _Squatter Sovereign_, at Atchison, was secretary of the

convention.

Caleb May remained a successful farmer and leading citizen of the county

for many years after this convention, subsequently drifting to the

Indian Territory, where he died.

John J. Ingalls became United States senator from Kansas, where he

remained for eighteen years, part of the time as president protempore of

that body.

John A. Martin became one of the leading military heroes of Kansas, and

served as governor of the State from 1886 to 1888. He played an

important part as an officer of the convention, as also did Mr. Ingalls,

who, Samuel A. Stinson says, was the “recognized scholar of the

convention, and authority on all questions connected with the

arrangement and phraseology of the instrument.” For this reason he was

made chairman of the committee on phraseology and arrangements. Robert

Graham was chairman of the committee on corporations and banking, and on

the ballot to locate a temporary capital of the State Atchison received

six votes. Topeka received twenty-nine and was chosen as the temporary

capital and afterwards became the permanent capital of Kansas.

CHAPTER VI.

ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY AND CITY OF ATCHISON.

ONE OF THE THIRTY-THREE ORIGINAL COUNTIES—THE CITY OF ATCHISON

LOCATED—TOWN COMPANY—SALE OF LOTS—INCORPORATION OF TOWN—EARLY

BUSINESS ENTERPRISES—ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY—COMMERCIAL GROWTH—

FREIGHTING—FIRST OFFICERS—FREE STATE AND PRO-SLAVERY CLASHES—

HORACE GREELEY VISITS ATCHISON—ABRAHAM LINCOLN MAKES A SPEECH

HERE—GREAT DROUGHT OF 1860—CITY OFFICIALS.

Atchison was one of the thirty-three original counties created by the

first territorial legislature, which convened at Pawnee, July 2, 1855,

and subsequently adjourned to Shawnee Mission, July 6, 1855, and was

named for Senator David R. Atchison, United States senator from

Missouri, concerning whom much has been said in previous chapters. The

county was surveyed in 1855 and divided into three townships,

Grasshopper township comprising all that section lying west of the old

Pottawatomie road; Mount Pleasant township, all east of the old

Pottawatomie road, and south of Walnut creek, from its confluence with

the Missouri river to the source of the creek and a parallel line west

to the old Pottawatomie road, and Shannon township, all that section of

the county north of Mount Pleasant township. Subsequently, this sub-

division was further divided into eight townships, now comprising the

county, to-wit: Grasshopper, Mount Pleasant, Shannon, Lancaster,

Kapioma, Center, Walnut and Benton. The county is located in the extreme

northeastern part of Kansas, save one, Doniphan county, by which it is

bounded on the north, together with Brown county, and on the west by

Jackson county, and on the south by Jefferson and Leavenworth counties.

It has an area of 409 square miles, or 271,360 acres.

The site of the city of Atchison, the first town in the county, was

selected because of its conspicuous geographical location on the river.

Senator Atchison and his associates attached great importance to the

fact that the river bent boldly inland at this point. They felt that it

would be of great commercial advantage to a town to be thus located, so

July 4, 1854, after a careful consideration of the matter, in all of its

phases, Senator Atchison and his Platte county, Missouri, friends

dedicated the new town. They felt that they had located the natural

gateway through which all the overland traffic to Utah, Oregon and

California would pass. After they had settled with George Million, the

first known white settler of the territory, and attended to other

unimportant preliminaries Dr. J. H. Stringfellow made a claim just north

of the Million claim, and with Ira Norris, James T. Darnell, Leonidas

Oldham, James B. Martin, George Million and Samuel Dickson, agreed to

form a town company, and they received into their organization David R.

Atchison, Elijah Green, E. H. Norton, Peter T. Abell, B. F.

Stringfellow, Lewis Burnes, Daniel D. Burnes, James N. Burnes, Calvin F.

Burnes and Stephen Johnson. A week later these men gathered under a

large cottonwood tree, near Atchison street, on the river, and organized

by electing Peter T. Abell, president; Dr. J. H. Stringfellow,

secretary, and Col. James N. Burnes, treasurer. Peter T. Abell,

president of the town company, was an able lawyer, and a Southern man,

with pronounced views on the question of slavery. But he was a man of

judgment, and a natural boomer. He was a very large man, being over six

feet tall and weighed almost 300 pounds. When he became president of the

town company he was a resident of Weston, Mo., and lived there until a

year after Atchison had been surveyed. Subsequently, Senator Atchison

assigned his interests in the town company to his nephew, James Headley,

who afterwards became one of the leading lawyers of the town. Jesse

Morris also became a member.

The town company, having been regularly organized, the townsite was

divided into 100 shares. Each of its members retained five shares; the

balance of thirty being held for general distribution. Abell, B. F.

Stringfellow and all of the Burnes brothers were received as two

parties. Henry Kuhn, a surveyor, surveyed 480 acres, which comprised the

original townsite. Mr. Kuhn and his son returned to Atchison forty-five

years later, and for a short time ran the _Atchison Champion_. On

September 21, the first sale of town lots was held, amidst great

excitement and general interest. It was a gathering which had both

political and business significance. Senator Atchison, from Missouri,

with a large number of his constituents, was there, and Atchison made a

speech, in which one reporter quotes him as having said:

“People of every quarter should be welcome to the Territory, and treated

with civility as long as they showed themselves peaceable men.”

[Illustration:

A View in Commercial Street. Looking East, Atchison, Kansas

]

Someone in the crowd called out, “What shall we do with those who run

off with our negroes?” “Hang ’em,” cried a voice in the crowd. To this

Mr. Atchison replied, “No, I would not hang them, but I would get them

out of the Territory, get rid of them.” One version of the speech was to

the effect that Senator Atchison answered his questioners by saying, “By

G—d, sir, hang every abolitionist you find in the Territory.” But the

best account of the meeting was printed in a Parkville, Mo., newspaper,

and was reported by an eye witness, who said:

“We arrived at Atchison in the forenoon. Among the company was our

distinguished senator, in honor of whom the new city was named. There

was a large assemblage on the ground, with plenty of tables set for

dinner, where the crowd could be accommodated with bacon and bread, and

a drink at the branch, at fifty cents a head. The survey of the town had

just been completed the evening before. Stockholders held a meeting, to

arrange particulars of sale, and afterwards, as had been previously

announced, General Atchison mounted an old wagon and made a speech. He

commenced by mentioning the bountiful country that was beginning to be

settled; to some of the circumstances under which a territorial

government was organized, and in the course of his remarks, mentioned

how Douglass came to introduce the Nebraska bill, with a repeal clause

in it. He told of how Judge Douglass requested twenty-four hours in

which to consider the question of introducing a bill for Nebraska, like

the one he had promised to vote for, and said that if, at the expiration

of that time, he could not introduce such a bill, which would not at the

same time accord with his own sense of right and justice to the South,

he would resign as chairman of the territorial committee, and Democratic

caucus, and exert his influence to get Atchison appointed. At the

expiration of the given time, Judge Douglass signified his intention to

report such a bill.

“General Atchison next spoke of those who had supported and those who

had opposed the bill in the Senate, and ended by saying that the

American people loved honesty and could appreciate the acts of a man who

openly and above-board voted according to the will of his constituents,

without political regard or favor. He expressed his profound contempt

for abolitionists, and said if he had his way he would hang everyone of

them that dared to show his face, but he knew that Northern men settling

in the Territory were sensible and honest, and that the right feeling

men among them would be as far from stealing a negro as a Southern man

would.

“When Senator Atchison concluded his remarks, the sale of town lots

began, and thirty-four were sold that afternoon, at an average of $63.00

each. Most of those that were sold were some distance back from the

river, and speculators were not present, so far as it could be

determined, and lots that were sold were bought mostly by owners of the

town. Prices ranged from $35.00 to $200.00.”

At this meeting the projects of building a hotel and establishing a

newspaper were discussed, and as a result, each of the original 100

shares was assessed $25.00, and in the following spring the National

Hotel, corner of Second and Atchison streets, was built. Dr. J. H.

Stringfellow and Robert S. Kelley received a donation of $400.00 from

the town company, to buy a printing office and in February, 1855, the

_Squatter Sovereign_, which subsequently did so much for the pro-slavery

cause, was born.

The town company required each settler to build a house at least sixteen

feet square upon his lot, so that when the survey was made in 1855 many

found themselves upon school lands. Among those who put up homes in 1854

and 1855 were James T. Darnell, Archibald Elliott, Thomas J. C. Duncan,

Andrew W. Pebler, R. S. Kelley, F. B. Wilson, Henry Kline and William

Hassett. The titles to the lands owned by these residents remained

unsettled until 1857, when titles to all lands within the townsite and

open to settlement were acquired from the federal government, and

subsequently the title to school lands was secured by patents from the

Territory, and in this way the town company secured a clear title to all

lands which they had heretofore conveyed, and re-conveyed the same to

the settlers and purchasers. Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, proprietor of North

Atchison, an addition to the city of Atchison, employed J. J. Pratt to

survey that addition in October, 1857. It consisted of the northeast

quarter of the northeast quarter of section 36, township 5, range 20.

Samuel Dickson, who was the proprietor of South Atchison, had that

addition platted in May, 1858, and John Roberts, who was the proprietor

of West Atchison, had his addition surveyed in February, 1858, a few

months before Samuel Dickson surveyed South Atchison. C. L. Challiss’

addition was surveyed about the same time. Other additions to the

corporate limits of Atchison have been made, and are as follows:

Branchton, Bird’s addition, Brandner’s addition, Bakewell Heights,

Batiste addition, Florence Park, Forest Park, Goodhue Place, Garfield

Park, Highland Park, Home Place, Howard Heights, LaGrande addition,

Lincoln Park, Llewellyn Heights, Lutheran Church addition, Mapleton

Place, Merkles addition, Parker’s addition, Park Place, Price Villa

addition, River View addition, Spring Garden, Style’s addition, Bellvue

Heights, and Talbott & Company’s addition.

Atchison was incorporated as a town by act of the Territorial

legislature, August 30, 1855, but it was not incorporated as a city

until February 12, 1858, after which the charter was approved by the

people by special election, March 2, 1858. In the fall of 1856, Atchison

had obtained a great many advantages over other towns along the river,

by a judicious system of advertising. The _Squatter Sovereign_ printed a

circular November 22, 1856, which was scattered broadcast. The circular

was as follows:

“To the public, generally, but particularly to those persons living

north of the Kansas river, in Kansas Territory:

“It is well known to many, and should be to all interested, that the

town of Atchison is nearer to most persons living north of the Kansas

river, than any other point on the Missouri river. The country, too,

south of the Kansas river above Lecompton, is also as near Atchison as

any other Missouri river town. The roads to Atchison in every direction

are very fine, and always in good repair for wagon and other modes of

travel. The country opposite Atchison is not excelled by any section of

Missouri, it being portions of Buchanan and Platte counties, in a high

state of cultivation, and at a considerable distance from any important

town in Missouri, making grain, fruit, provisions and all kinds of

marketing easily procured at fair prices; a matter of no small

consideration to settlers in a new country.

“The great fresh water lake, from which the fish markets of St. Joseph

and Weston are supplied, is also within three miles of Atchison.

“Atchison is now well supplied with all kinds of goods: groceries,

flour, corn, meal, provisions and marketing of all kinds are abundant,

and at fair prices. To show the compatibility of Atchison to supply the

demands of the country, we here enumerate some of the business houses,

viz: Six large dry goods and grocery stores, wholesale and retail; six

family grocery and provision stores, wholesale and retail; one large

clothing store; one extensive furniture store, with mattresses and

bedding of all sorts; one stove, sheet iron and tinware establishment,

where articles in that line are sold at St. Louis prices; several large

warehouses sufficient to store all the goods of emigrants and traders

across the plains, and to Kansas Territory; one weekly newspaper—_The

Squatter Sovereign_—having the largest circulation of any newspaper in

Kansas, with press, type and materials to execute all kinds of job work;

two commodious hotels, and several boarding houses; one bakery and

confectionery; three blacksmith shops; two wagon makers, and several

carpenter shops; one cabinet maker; two boot and shoe maker shops, and

saddle and harness maker shops; one extensive butcher and meat market; a

first rate ferry, on which is kept a magnificent new steam ferry boat

and excellent horse boat, propelled by horses; a good flat boat, and

several skiffs; saw mills, two propelled by steam and one by horse-

power; two brick yards, and two lime kilns.

“A fine supply of professional gentlemen of all branches constantly on

hand equal to the demand.

“A good grist mill is much needed, and would make money for the owner.”

The first business house in Atchison was established by George T.

Challiss, at the corner of the Levee and Commercial streets, in August,

1854. The National Hotel was not built at that time, so Mr. Challiss

established a temporary camp, and his workmen were accommodated under an

elm tree near the river. The Challiss store building was torn down in

1872. George T. Challiss and his brother, Luther C. Challiss, were

clerking in a dry goods store at Booneville, Mo., in the spring of 1854.

George T. Challiss returned to his old home in New Jersey on a visit,

and upon his return, in August, he came direct to Atchison. He came by

boat to Weston, Mo., where he met P. T. Abell, president of the town

company, and Abell prevailed upon him to come to Atchison in a buggy,

crossing the river here on George Million’s ferry. Mr. Abell donated Mr.

Challiss the lot upon which he built his store, and he went to Rushville

and bought enough cottonwood lumber to build it. When he arrived in

Atchison, he had $4.50 in money, but later on borrowed $150.00 from his

brother, Luther C. Challiss, at Boonville. He enjoyed a good business

from the beginning, and carried a large stock of both dry goods and

groceries.

The town of Atchison was the one big outstanding factor in Atchison

county when the territory was organized, but at the same time that Abell

and Stringfellow and others “were shaping up the town,” others were busy

organizing the county. As the city was named for General Atchison, so

likewise was the county at the time of its creation by the first

Territorial legislature that assembled at Pawnee. The first board of

county commissioners was selected and appointed by the Territorial

legislature, August 31, 1855, and was composed of William J. Young,

James M. Givens and James A. Headley. The first meeting of the board was

held September 17, 1855, at the home of O. B. Dickerson, in the city of

Atchison. At this meeting Ira Norris was appointed clerk and recorder;

Samuel Dickson, treasurer; Samuel Walters, assessor. William McVay had

received an appointment as sheriff of the county prior to the meeting of

the board, direct from the governor, to fill the office temporarily

until his successor was subsequently appointed and qualified. On the

18th of September, 1855, being the second day of the session of the

first board of county commissioners, Eli C. Mason was appointed as

sheriff to succeed McVay, and Dudley McVay was appointed coroner. Voting

precincts were established in three townships preparatory to an election

of a delegate to Congress, which was to take place the first Monday in

October, 1855. At the October meeting of the board of county

commissioners, block 10, in what is now known as Old Atchison, was

accepted by the board as a location upon which to erect a court house.

This property was offered to the county by the Atchison town company for

the purpose of influencing the board to make Atchison the county seat.

The conditions of the gift were that the court house was to be built of

brick and to be at least forty feet square. In the following spring the

town company donated fifty town lots, and the proceeds of these lots

were to be used in the construction of the court house. In June, 1857,

the court house was ordered built and it was to be two stories high, the

first story to be of rock and the second story of wood. It was 24×18

feet square: however, the plans were subsequently changed, and, because

of the gift of an additional fourteen lots by the town company, of a

value of $6,000.00, a more pretentious building was erected in 1859,

with a county jail adjoining it. Prior to the erection of the court

house, there was a spirited contest between Mt. Pleasant, Monrovia,

Lancaster and Sumner over the question of the county seat. In an

election to determine the location, Atchison received a majority of 252

votes over all competitors for the county seat. The estimated total

population of the county at the time was 2,745.

In the next few years Atchison grew rapidly and the dreams of Senator

Atchison and his associates bade fair to be realized on a large scale.

The population of the town was about 500, and yet there were eight

hardware stores, twelve dry goods stores, eight wholesale grocery

stores, nineteen retail grocery stores, and twenty-six law firms. The

banking business was controlled by the contracting firms of A. Majors &

Company and Smoot, Russell & Company. The Atchison branch of the Kansas

Valley Bank was the first in the State to be formed under the

legislative act, authorized February 19, 1857, with a capital stock of

$300,000.00. In the act, John H. Stringfellow, Joseph Plean and Samuel

Dickson were named to open subscription books. An organization was

effected in the spring of 1858, and the capital stock of the local

organization was $52,000.00. The board of directors was composed of

Samuel C. Pomeroy, president; W. H. Russell, L. R. Smoot, W. B. Waddell,

F. G. Adams, Samuel Dickson and W. E. Gaylord. There was considerable

rivalry between Sumner and Doniphan at the time, and shortly after the

organization of the bank, a rumor, which was supposed to have started in

Sumner, to the effect that the bank was about to suspend, caused the

directors to publish a statement of its condition, showing that its

assets were $36,638.00 and its liabilities $20,118.00. S. C. Pomeroy

resigned as president before the year was out and was succeeded by

William H. Russell. The bank subsequently had its name changed by the

legislature to the Bank of the State of Kansas. Mr. Russell, the second

president of the bank, made his home in Leavenworth and was an active

pro-slavery man, being treasurer of the executive committee in 1856 to

raise funds to make Kansas a slave State. This bank continued until

1866, when it went into voluntary liquidation and its stockholders wound

up its affairs.

One of the most important institutions in Atchison in the early days was

the Massasoit House, opened for business September 1, 1858, in charge of

Tom Murphy, a genial proprietor, who conducted it for many years. At the

same time there were three other hotels in operation in the city.

Reference has heretofore been made to the National Hotel, which was

elected in 1855 by popular subscription. It was a plain log structure on

the north side of Atchison street, just east of Second, overlooking the

river. The Tremont House was a two-story frame structure at the

southeast corner of Second and Main, and the Planters’ House was at the

southwest corner of Commercial and Sixth streets on the site now

occupied by the Exchange National Bank, but the Massasoit House was the

leading hotel of this section and it was a substantial, somewhat

imposing frame building erected at the northwest corner of Second and

Main streets on the site now occupied by the Wherrett-Mize Wholesale

Drug House. It was three stories high with a basement and was handsomely

furnished. It did a large business and was the headquarters for the

overland staging crowds. All the lines, which ran in every direction,

out of Atchison at that time departed from the Massasoit House. It was a

favorite place for political gatherings, and from its balconies many

speeches were made by leaders of the political parties of that day. It

at one time was the hiding place for a number of slaves who had been

secreted in the hotel by their master. Horace Greeley, the famous editor

of the _New York Tribune_, ate his first dinner in Kansas at this hotel,

and Abraham Lincoln was a guest on the day that John Brown was executed

at Harper’s Ferry.

Some idea of the magnitude of the merchandising that was carried on in

Atchison in 1858 may be gathered from the fact that during the summer of

that year twenty-four trains comprising 775 wagons, 1,114 men, 7,963

oxen, 142 horses, 1,286 mules conveyed 3,730,905 pounds of merchandise

across the Rocky mountains and California. One single train that was

sent out that year consisted of 105 wagons, 225 men, 1,000 oxen, 200

mules, fifty horses and 465,500 pounds of merchandise. During the latter

part of 1859 and the early months of 1860, forty-one regular traders and

freighters did business out of Atchison. During nine months of one of

those years, the trains outfitted from Atchison were drawn by mules and

cattle and comprised 1,328 wagons, 1,549 men, 401 mules and 15,263 oxen.

The Pike’s Peak gold mines, which were discovered in 1858, and the

prospecting in that region were the causes of the larger part of this

enormous business. Denver at that time had a population of about 2,500,

and was the center of the mining region around Pike’s Peak. In the

period just mentioned, thirty-three of the trains that left Atchison

were destined for Denver. One of these trains was composed of 125

wagons, carrying 750,000 pounds of merchandise. It extended from the

levee on the river far beyond the western outskirts of the city. The

outfit was managed by fifty-two men, twenty-two mules and 1,542 oxen.

Several of the trains for Denver had from twenty to fifty wagons. One,

sent out by Jones & Cartwright, had fifty-eight wagons and carried over

3,000 pounds of merchandise. Among the trains that left Atchison during

the latter part of 1859 were, one for Santa Fe, N. M., another for

Colorado City, Colo., two for Green River, Wyo., and four for Salt Lake

City. The biggest overland outfit was owned by Irwin, Jackson & Company,

who were Government freighters. During one season this firm sent out 520

wagons, 650 men, 75 mules and 6,240 oxen. This firm had a good contract

for supplying the military posts on the plains, including Forts Kearney,

Laramie, Bridger, Douglas, and Camp Floyd, a short distance from Salt

Lake City. In addition to these larger overland staging concerns there

were a number of lesser outfits sent out by private parties in Atchison,

with one, two or three wagons each. Most of the freight conveyed across

the plains in wagons was brought to Atchison in steamboats, which

unloaded at the levee extending along two or three blocks, beginning at

about Atchison street and running south. Very frequently loaded ox

trains nearly a mile in length were seen on Commercial street, and some

of the prairie schooners would be loaded with hardware or some other

dead weight, drawn by six to eight yoke of cattle; and more wagon trains

were loaded and departed from Atchison than from any other point on the

Missouri river.

The act of the Territorial legislature of Kansas incorporating the city

of Atchison was approved February 12, 1858, and it provided for the

election of a mayor and councilmen. The charter was voted upon and

accepted by the people at a special election held March 2, 1858, and the

first mayor and council were elected at a special election March 13,

1858. The charter provided for an annual city election at that time to

be held on the first Monday in September, and consequently the first

mayor and councilmen of the city, elected in March, held their offices

only until the following September. Samuel C. Pomeroy was the first

mayor of the city, holding his office from March, 1858, until May, 1859.

Pomeroy was one of the prominent Free State settlers and was one of its

most popular citizens. His election as mayor was the result of the toss

of a coin. A temporary truce having been effected between the

Southerners and the Free State men, it was agreed that a compromise in

local affairs would be beneficial to the community. By the toss of a

coin the Free State men won the mayor and three councilmen, and the pro-

slavery men had four councilmen. Pomeroy was named by the Free State men

mayor. Pomeroy subsequently became actively identified with the

Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Association, in the distribution of aid to

the stricken people of Kansas following the great drought of 1860, and

it was largely because of his identification with this organization that

he was enabled to place aid where it would do the most good, and he

subsequently became one of the first United States senators from Kansas.

When he was a resident of Atchison he lived at the corner of North

Terrace and Santa Fe streets, but later he moved to a tract of land near

Muscotah, and during the twelve years he was senator he claimed the

latter place as his home. It was when he asked for a third term as

United States senator that he was exposed on the floor of the State

senate by Senator York, who arose in his place and, advancing to the

secretary’s desk, placed $7,000.00 in cash thereon, which he alleged

Pomeroy had given him to influence his vote. Many have always believed

that Senator Pomeroy was greatly wronged by this act of York. Ex-

Governor George W. Glick, himself a Democrat and a leading citizen of

Atchison in the early days, was a very warm friend of Pomeroy and always

expressed indignation when he heard Pomeroy abused, not only about his

conduct in connection with the Emigrant Aid Association, but also in

connection with his downfall politically. It was the contention of

Governor Glick that Pomeroy’s fall was the result of a conspiracy and

not because of general bribery. However, Pomeroy never rose to political

prominence after this incident and ended his days in Washington, D. C.,

where he lived for a number of years prior to his death.

Associated with Pomeroy as the first mayor of Atchison, were the

following citizens: John F. Stein, Jr. register; E. B. Grimes,

treasurer; Milton R. Benton, marshal; A. E. Mayhew, city attorney; W. O.

Gould, city engineer; M. R. Benton, by virtue of his office as marshal,

was also street commissioner; H. L. Davis, assessor; Dr. J. W. Hereford,

city physician. The board of appraisers was composed of Messrs. Petfish,

Roswell and Gaylord. The first councilmen were William P. Childs, O. F.

Short, Luther C. Challiss, Cornelius E. Logan, S. F. Walters, James A.

Headley, Charles Holbert. John F. Stein, who was register, resigned his

office in August, and R. L. Pease was appointed to succeed him. In the

following August the city was divided into three wards, the first ward

being entitled to four councilmen, the second ward to two, and the third

ward to three. At the first meeting of the council, which was held March

15, 1858, an ordinance was adopted providing for a special election for

the purpose of submitting a proposition to take $100,000.00 of stock in

a proposed railroad from St. Joseph, Mo., to some point opposite

Atchison on the Missouri river. The election was held and the stock was

subscribed for. Mayor Pomeroy was appointed agent of the proposed road,

which was to be known as the Atchison & St. Joseph Railroad Company. A

further account of the development of railroad building from Atchison

will occur in a subsequent chapter. The council at this session also

fixed the salary of the mayor, and in spite of the freedom of those

days, saloons were ordered to be closed on Sunday, and other stringent

regulations were passed in connection with the liquor traffic. The first

financial statement of the city, of date September 5, 1859, is as

follows:

General city tax, 1858 $ 5,927.70

Fines imposed by mayor’s court 186.50

Dray and wagon licenses 192.00

Dram shop licenses 1,787.76

Beer house licenses 101.33

Shows 130.00

Billiard tables 225.00

Registry of dogs 50.00

Assessment on C street from River to Fourth 3,381.00

—————————

Total $12,008.29

Amount of scrip and orders issued on general fund to

December 15, 1858 $ 6,317.17

Amount of scrip and orders issued on general fund to

September 5, 1859 3,140.53

Scrip issued toward building jail 1,675.00

Scrip issued for grading streets, curbing, etc. 10,105.39

—————————

Total $21,238.09

—————————

General deficit $ 9,229.79

The fact that Mayor Pomeroy had strongly urged in his inaugural address

the importance of grading and improving the streets of the city

“especially Atchison, Second and Fourth streets, and the levee,”

possibly accounts for the indebtedness of the city at so early a date.

There was a general inclination among the citizens of Atchison to build

a modern city in accordance with the standards of the times, and

therefore they were anxious to follow the mayor’s advice to put their

streets and alleys in order.

One of the most interesting and at the same time one of the most

difficult tasks in tracing the settlement of a community, is to

correctly catalogue the establishment of the first settler, the first

house, the first business institution, and the first of everything, and

it could with safety be said that this is not only an interesting and

difficult task but it is well nigh an impossible one. This is not to be

wondered at when we take into account the rush and confusion which

always attend the settlement of a new community. However, it has now

become an established fact that George M. Million was the first white

settler in the Territory, with Samuel Dickson a close second. There was

some dispute about who built the first house in the town of Atchison,

but we have resolved all doubt in favor of Dickson, just as we have

decided that George T. Challiss established the first business house.

The Challiss brothers, George, Luther and William all played an

important part in the very early history of the county. They were in

business and in the professions, and they were all land owners,

selecting the choicest tracts “close in” and holding onto them, none too

wisely or too well, for their tenacity in this respect later resulted in

their undoing. The leading lawyers in the county during those days were

M. J. Ireland, A. G. Otis, Isaac Hascall, James A. Headley, A. E.

Mayhew, J. T. Hereford, P. H. Larey, Joseph P. Carr and B. F.

Stringfellow. Horton, Foster, Ingalls, and General Bela M. Hughes came

later. Hascall carried a card in the _Squatter Sovereign_, advertising

his legal headquarters as the Border Ruffian Law Office.

In addition to the names of merchants and professional men heretofore

given, “Andreas’ History of Kansas” gives the following list: Grafton

Thomassen, the slave owner, ran a sawmill. Thomassen’s name appears in

the records of Atchison county in connection with land transfers as

Grafton Thomason; Luther C. Challiss, who occupied a store on the levee,

45 by 100 feet which he filled with dry goods and groceries, and

advertised “such an assortment as was never before offered for sale in

the upper country”; Samuel Dickson, a merchant and politician and also

an auctioneer, on the north side of C street; Lewis Burnes, M. P. Rively

and Stephen Johnson carried stocks of assorted merchandise; A. J. G.

Westbrook, a grocer, and Patrick Laughlin, who fled from Doniphan on

account of the murder of Collins, the Free State man, was a tinner;

William C. Null and Albert G. Schmitt operated a warehouse and carried a

general stock of merchandise at the corner of Second and C streets;

Charles E. Woolfolk and Robert H. Cavell had a large store and warehouse

at the steamboat landing; George M. Million operated the Pioneer Saloon;

John Robertson conducted a saddlery and harness business; Messrs.

Jackson & Ireland were a contracting firm with a shop over Samuel

Dickson’s store; Uncle Sam Clothing Store, at the corner of C and Third

streets, was conducted by Jacob Saqui & Company; Giles B. Buck sold

stoves on C street; O. B. Dickson was proprietor of the Atchison House;

Drs. J. H. Stringfellow and D. M. McVay were the leading physicians; and

it is interesting to note that Washburn’s Great American Colossal

Circus, which was the first in Kansas, gave two exhibitions in Atchison,

July 31, 1856. This aggregation carried three clowns, a full brass and

string band and an immense pavilion, and many other novel and attractive

features.

Fully fifty new buildings were erected during the spring and summer of

1856.

During this period in the history of the county, Free State people began

to come into their own. They grew bolder, following the compromise with

the pro-slavery citizens, over the question of the distribution of city

officers and because of other concessions that were made by the pro-

slavery citizens for the general good of the community. It was not

strange, therefore, that some of the less tactful and politic Free State

leaders should over-reach themselves at such a time. While the “Reign of

Terrorism” under the Stringfellow regime was on, the Free State men in

Atchison county considered discretion the better part of valor. They

were very quiet, with few exceptions, of whom Pardee Butler was a

conspicuous example, but they were nevertheless quite numerous in the

county, and particularly was this the case in and around Monrovia, Eden

and Ocena; in fact, there was an organization of Free State men in the

county as early as 1857, and several quiet meetings were held that year;

and at Monrovia a society was formed, of which Franklin G. Adams was the

chief officer and spokesman.

Early in May, 1857, Senator Pomeroy and the Free State men bought the

_Squatter Sovereign_ from Dr. Stringfellow, and Mr. Adams and Robert

McBratney became its editors. Mr. Adams was just as ardent a Free State

man as Dr. Stringfellow was the other way, so the policy of the paper

was completely reversed. Judge Adams was a lawyer and partner of John J.

Ingalls for a while. He represented Atchison county in the

constitutional convention that met in Mineola March 23, 1858 and which

subsequently adjourned to Leavenworth. Caleb May, G. M. Fuller, C. A.

Woodworth and H. E. Baker were the other delegates from Atchison county.

Judge Adams was later one of the useful men of Kansas, and at the time

of his death he was secretary of the State Historical Society, which

position he filled with credit and honor for many years. On August 22,

1858, following the local compromise with the pro-slavery leaders, Judge

Adams concluded the time was ripe to invite James H. Lane, the great

Free State leader, to Atchison, to make a speech. He consequently served

notice in his paper that Lane would be in Atchison October 19. As soon

as it was generally known that Lane had been invited to speak in

Atchison a number of the more rabid pro-slavery men concluded that the

speaking would not take place. On the other hand, Judge Adams was just

as determined that Lane would have a public meeting in Atchison. For the

purpose of insuring order on that occasion Adams invited a number of

strong and reliable Free State friends from Leavenworth to come up to

Atchison and see that fair play was done. The invitation to the

Leavenworth Free Soilers was accepted with alacrity and they arrived on

the morning of the day Lane was billed to make his speech and brought

with them their side arms as a matter of precaution. They made the

office of Adams, Swift & Company their headquarters while here. Shortly

after the arrival of the Leavenworth contingent and while sitting in his

office Judge Adams noticed a crowd gathering on Commercial street, near

Fifth. Suspecting that the crowd had gathered for no good purpose, Judge

Adams and six of his friends started for the scene of what appeared to

him to be a disturbance. On their way they met Caleb A. Woodworth, Sr.,

hatless and apparently in trouble. As Judge Adams stopped to make

inquiries of Mr. Woodworth regarding his trouble somebody from the rear

assaulted him with a heavy blow on the cheek. Instead of following the

Biblical injunction he did not turn his other cheek, but swung quickly

in his tracks and levelled a pistol at his assailant, who was

accompanied by a crowd of his friends, all armed and with blood in their

eyes. As Judge Adams was about to pull the trigger of his gun a friend

of Judge Adams shouted, “Don’t shoot yet!” following which admonition

all of the crowd displayed cocked revolvers and aimed them in the

direction of Judge Adams and his crowd. Observing that the Free Soilers

meant business, the pro-slavery men discreetly withdrew without further

trouble, and the Free Soil men returned to the office of Judge Adams. It

was then determined that the meeting should be an out-of-door one, and

as they passed out into the street, again the pro-slavery advocates

mixed freely with the Free Soilers. A. J. W. Westbrook, of the “Home

Guards,” mounted on a prancing horse, rode among the crowd, flourishing

a cocked gun, apparently seeking to kill Judge Adams at the first

favorable opportunity. It has been doubted that Westbrook meant

business, but his conduct had the effect of stirring up his followers

who avowed that Jim Lane should not speak in Atchison that night. His

threatening attitude apparently had the desired effect, for the Free

Soil men decided that it was not necessary for the existence of their

cause that Jim Lane should speak and therefore postponed the speaking.

Judge Adams was not altogether pleased but he was finally prevailed upon

to return home without attempting further trouble. Later in the day a

party of Free Soil men met General Lane on the outskirts of the city,

returning from Doniphan where he had been speaking, and prevailed upon

him not to come to Atchison. This was not the first attempt of Lane to

visit Atchison county. He was entertained at dinner in 1855 at the home

of Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, whose house occupied the site where the home

of Ex-Governor W. J. Bailey now stands. The fact that Lane was a guest

of Dr. Stringfellow will appear strange to those who knew nothing of the

Stringfellow family. While they were belligerent pro-slavery advocates,

they were always high class men with decent instincts and therefore it

would not be unusual for them to open their home to so violent an

opponent of theirs as Lane was. The eastern papers, in giving an account

of Lane’s entertainment at the Stringfellow home, stated that the dinner

was a very elaborate one, including oysters, plum pudding, terrapin and

champagne. Mrs. Stringfellow told E. W. Howe in 1894 that Lane came to

the house about 11 o’clock in the morning attended by a body-guard of

four men and inquired for Dr. Stringfellow. The Doctor was away at the

time, but was expected about noon. The men said that they would wait,

whereupon Mrs. Stringfellow knew that she would probably have them for

dinner. Her girl was just getting ready to go somewhere on an errand and

was asked to remain at the house. Dr. Stringfellow came in about noon

and when the two men met in the yard Stringfellow asked Lane if he was

not afraid to call at his house. “I am not afraid,” Lane replied, “to

call on a gentleman anywhere.” This gallantry captured Mrs.

Stringfellow’s admiration and she invited Lane and his body-guard to

dinner, which, contrary to the report in the eastern papers, was a very

simple one. Mrs. Stringfellow, in her interview with Mr. Howe, said that

it was as follows: Coffee, hot biscuits and butter, cold pie, preserves

and milk; no terrapin, no oysters, no champagne, no plum pudding. Lane

called at the house on a matter of business and Mrs. Stringfellow said

that Lane and his body-guard were very kindly genteel men. Two or three

weeks later, when Mrs. Stringfellow was alone in the house, she saw a

wagon pass in the road with three or four men lying down in it.

Presently another wagon, similarly loaded, attracted her attention. Then

came four men and a woman on horseback and several men on foot. The

people came from down town, or from southwest of town. The circumstances

were peculiar, and Mrs. Stringfellow climbed on top of a table and

watched the men through the upper sash of a window. They stopped in a

little glade northeast of the house, when the woman dismounted from the

horse, took off the skirt and turned out to be Jim Lane. He stood beside

the horse and talked possibly half an hour. Mrs. Stringfellow is certain

the speaker was Lane, because she had seen him only a few weeks before,

and he rode the white horse he had ridden when he stopped at her house,

and the same four men composed the body-guard. Lane had threatened to

make a speech in the town but had been warned not to, as he had been

warned two years earlier. He made his speech in spite of the warning,

but his audience was composed of his friends only. A half hour after

Lane disappeared over the hill toward the farm then owned by John

Taylor, some distance south of the Orphans’ Home, forty mounted

southerners appeared looking for him. Mrs. Stringfellow knew John Scott,

the leader, and told him of the incident. The men laughed and then gave

three rousing cheers for Jim Lane, who had outwitted them.

[Illustration:

Forest Park, Atchison, Kansas

]

While there was a tremendous traffic across the plains from Atchison in

1857, 1858 and 1859, and for a number of years later the “town was alive

with business,” it is only fair to record that the town itself was not a

thing of beauty and a joy forever, in spite of the efforts of Mayor

Pomeroy and the city fathers who put the city in debt to the extent of

$9,000, September 5, 1859, for public improvements.

Frank A. Root in his admirable book, “The Overland Stage to California,”

published in 1901, has this to say in part upon his arrival here in

November, 1858:

“It was in November, 1858, that I first set foot on the levee in

Atchison. I stepped from the steamer, ‘Omaha,’ which boat was

discharging its cargo of freight at the foot of Commercial street. At

that time the place was a very small town. I took up my residence in

Atchison the following spring, having this time come up the river on a

steamboat from Weston where I had been employed as a compositor in the

office of the _Platte Argus_. On landing at Atchison I had a solitary

dime in my pocket, and, after using that to pay for my lunch, I started

out in search of a job. A sign over the office which read: ‘Freedom’s

Champion, John A. Martin, Editor and Publisher,’ attracted my attention.

It hung above the door of the only newspaper office in the city at that

time, but preparations were then being made by Gideon O. Chase, of

Waverly, N. Y., to start the _Atchison Union_, which was to be a

Democratic paper. I secured a place in the _Champion_ office, beginning

work the following morning. As I walked about the town I remember of

having seen but four brick buildings on Commercial street. A part of the

second story of one of them, about half a square west of the river, was

occupied by the _Champion_. The Massasoit House was the leading hotel.

The Planters, a two-story frame house, was a good hotel in those early

days, but it was too far out to be convenient, located as it was, on the

corner of Commercial and Sixth streets. West of Sixth there were but few

scattering dwellings and perhaps a dozen business houses and shops. The

road along Commercial street, west of Sixth, was crooked, for it had not

been graded and the streets were full of stumps and remnants of a thick

growth of underbrush that had previously been cut. A narrow, rickety

bridge was spanning White Clay creek where that stream crosses

Commercial street at Seventh street. Between Sixth and Seventh streets,

north of Commercial street there was a frog pond occupying most of the

block, where the boys pulled dog-grass in highwater, and where both boys

and girls skated in winter. The Exchange hotel on Atchison street,

between Second and the Levee, built of logs—subsequently changed to the

National—was the principal hotel of Atchison, and for more than a

quarter of a century stood as an old familiar landmark, built in early

territorial days.

“Atchison was the first Kansas town visited by Horace Greeley. It was

Sunday morning, May 15, 1859, a few days before beginning his overland

journey across the continent by stage. He came through Missouri by the

Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, thence down the Missouri river from St.

Joseph on the ‘Platte Valley,’ a steamer then running to Kansas City in

connection with trains on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. It was in

the old Massasoit House that Greeley wrote on Kansas soil, his first

letter to the _Tribune_. During the latter part of the afternoon he was

driven over the city in a carriage, John A. Martin being one of the

party. The city was a favorite place of Albert D. Richardson, the noted

correspondent of five eastern newspapers.

“It was at Atchison that Abraham Lincoln, on his first visit to Kansas,

spoke to a crowded house on ‘The Issues of the Day,’ December 2, 1859,

the date that old John Brown was executed in Virginia. Lincoln spoke in

the Methodist church, which then stood on the hill at the corner of

Fifth and Parallel streets. The little church was a frame building,

dedicated in May, 1859, and overlooked a considerable portion of the

city. The house afterwards became quite historic, for during the early

part of the Civil war, the patriotic Rev. Milton Mahin, a stanch Union

man, from Indiana, in a patriotic speech, soon after the Civil war broke

out, had the nerve, and was the first minister of the Gospel in

Atchison, to raise the Stars and Stripes over his house of worship.” D.

W. Wilder, in his “Annals of Kansas,” one of the most wonderful books of

its kind ever published, says that Abraham Lincoln arrived in Elwood,

which is just across from St. Joseph, December 1, 1859, and made his

speech there that evening. He was met at St. Joseph by M. W. Delahay and

D. W. Wilder. The speech that Lincoln delivered at Elwood and at

Atchison was the same speech that he subsequently delivered at the

Cooper Institute, New York City, and was considered as one of the ablest

and clearest ever delivered by an American statesman.

Atchison county was making forward strides at a rapid pace and the

future held out every promise of prosperity, but in 1859 “a great famine

fell upon the land.” It did more to depopulate Kansas than all the

troubles of preceding years. The settlers in the Territory were able to

fight border ruffians with more courage than they could endure

starvation, and during all of their earlier troubles they confidently

looked forward to the time when all of their political difficulties

would be settled and prosperity, peace and contentment would be their

share in life. During the years of 1855, 1856 and 1857 the citizens of

the Territory were unable to take advantage of the then favorable

seasons to do more than raise just sufficient for their immediate needs.

During the next year immigration to Kansas was large and the new

settlers had but little time, in addition to building their homes, to

raise barely enough for home consumption, so in 1859 Kansas had only

enough grain on hand to last until the following harvest. The drought

commenced in June, and from the nineteenth of that month until November,

1860, not a shower of rain fell of any consequence. By fall the ground

was parched and the hot winds that blew from the south destroyed

vegetation and the wells and springs went dry. There were a few

localities on bottom lands along the Missouri river where sufficient

crops were raised to supply the immediate population, but over 60,000

people in Kansas faced starvation in the fall of 1860. Thirty thousand

settlers left the Territory for their old homes, from which they came,

abandoning their claims and all hope of success in Kansas. An endless

procession crossed the border from day to day. About 70,000 inhabitants

remained, of whom it was estimated 40,000 were able to go through the

winter. As soon as the news of this situation reached the East,

movements were inaugurated for the relief of the sufferers in Kansas. S.

C. Pomeroy was appointed general agent of northern Kansas. He did much

to raise liberal contributions in New York, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois

and Ohio, and the contributions were all sent to Atchison, from which

place they were distributed to the different counties of the State. The

total receipts of provisions for distribution up to March 15, 1861, were

8,090,951 pounds, and the total distribution at Atchison, exclusive of

branch depots, was 6,736,424 pounds. In spite of all of this assistance

over 30,000 settlers in Kansas that year suffered privation and almost

starvation.

It was during this frightful travail that Kansas as a State was born. On

January 21, 1861, Jefferson Davis and a number of other southern

senators left the United States Senate and on that day the bill for the

admission of Kansas under the Wyandotte constitution, which had been

laid before the House of Representatives in February, 1860, was called

up by W. H. Seward, and passed the Senate by a vote of thirty-six yeas

to sixteen nays. One week later the bill came up in the House on motion

of Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, who introduced the first bill for

the admission of Kansas into the Union, and while the motion was out of

the regular order, it was passed by a vote of 119 yeas to forty-two

nays. On January 29 the bill was signed by President Buchanan, and free

Kansas joined the Union.

The following are the names of the city officials of Atchison March 1,

1916: Dr. C. C. Finney, mayor; Victor L. King, city clerk; Walter E.

Brown, city attorney; C. A. Wright, city treasurer; Frank S. Altman,

city engineer; D. S. Beatty, police judge; William H. Coleman, chief of

police; John Compton, fire marshal; Jerome Van Dyke, street

commissioner; Owen P. Grady, meat inspector and license collector; Fred

Stutz, sanitary sergeant; Frank J. Roth, building commissioner; John

Compton, purchasing agent; Dr. T. E. Horner, city physician. Councilmen:

Louis Weinman, president; first ward, Louis Weinman, F. F. Bracke;

second ward, Joseph Schott, C. A. Brown; third ward, H. M. Ernst, John

R. Schmitt; fourth ward, W. C. Linville, Fred Snyder; fifth ward, Fay

Kested, Walter North.

CHAPTER VII.

TOWNS, PAST AND PRESENT.

SUMNER, ITS RISE AND FALL—OCENA—LANCASTER—FORT WILLIAM—ARRINGTON—

MUSCOTAH—EFFINGHAM—HURON—OLD MARTINSBURG—BUNKER HILL—LOCUST GROVE—

HELENA—CAYUGA—KENNEKUK—KAPIOMA—MASHENAH—ST. NICHOLAS—CONCORD—

PARNELL—SHANNON—ELMWOOD—CUMMINGSVILLE—EDEN POSTOFFICE—POTTER—MOUNT

PLEASANT—LEWIS’ POINT—FARLEY’S FERRY.

One of the most interesting subjects for the local historian is the rise

and fall of town companies and towns, within the confines of Atchison

county. Perhaps no county in the State, or for that matter, no county in

the United States, has been immune from the visitations of town boomers.

It is difficult in this enterprising age, with all the knowledge that we

now have at hand, to understand how it was possible for anybody, though

he was ever so enthusiastic, to conceive the idea that there was any

future for many of the “towns” that were born in Atchison county in the

early days. Yet, it is found that there was in the breasts of many

promoters a feeling that Atchison county offered unlimited possibilities

for the establishment and growth of towns and cities. One need only

search the records on file in the office of the register of deeds in

this county to discover numerous certified plats of towns which were

born to blush unseen and waste their fragrance on the desert air. In

some instances the records are quite complete and authentic, and contain

much information with reference to the origin, growth and final decay of

these nascent municipalities. In other cases nothing has come down to

posterity, save the merest fragmentary data, of which the plat,

containing the name of the town and of its organizer, its location and

the number of blocks, streets and alleys, constitute the major part.

Reference has heretofore been made to the founding and the organization

of the city of Atchison, which became and now remains the county seat of

Atchison county. The city played such an important part in the early

history of the county that its story has been woven into the general

fabric of this history, and therefore further reference to the city of

Atchison will not be made in this chapter.

SUMNER.

Perhaps the most important, although not the oldest, town established in

Atchison county outside of the city of Atchison was Sumner. A peculiar

aroma of legendary glory still clings to this old town, which was

located three miles below Atchison, on the Missouri river.

Its founder was John P. Wheeler, a young man who came to the Territory

when about twenty-one years of age, and who has been described as “a

red-headed, blue-eyed, consumptive, slim, freckled enthusiast from

Massachusetts.”

Atchison at this time was a strong pro-slavery town, and no abolitionist

was a welcome settler in her midst. For this reason Sumner sprang into

existence. It was a dream of its founder to make Sumner an important

forwarding point, one of its claims being the fact that it was the most

westerly of any of the Missouri river towns in Kansas.

In 1856 the site was surveyed and platted, and the name “Sumner” given

the new town, in honor of George Sumner, one of the original

stockholders, and not for his brother, the Hon. Charles Sumner, United

States senator, of Massachusetts, as many people suppose.

To bring Sumner before the public Mr. Wheeler engaged an artist named

Albert Conant to come out and make a drawing of it, and this was later

taken to Cincinnati, and a colored lithograph made from it, which was

widely circulated. From copies of this lithograph still extant it must

be admitted that the artist did not slight the town in any particular.

In the fall of 1857 the Sumner Town Company began the erection of a

large brick hotel. Samuel Hollister had the contract, his bid being

$16,000. The brick used in the construction were made on the ground, and

the lumber used in the construction work came by steamboat from

Pittsburgh, Pa. The hotel was completed in the summer of 1858, and at

last accounts the town company still owed Mr. Hollister $3,000. Some

years later the brick used in the hotel were gathered and cleaned and

hauled to Atchison and used for the construction of a building owned by

the late John J. Ingalls, located at 108–110 South Fourth street.

In the fall of 1857 Cone Brothers (John P. and D. D.) brought a printing

outfit to Kansas, and were induced to locate in Sumner, where they

shortly begun the publication of _The Sumner Gazette_, the first issue

of which appeared on September 12. During the political canvass that

fall they also issued a daily. _The Gazette_ was issued until 1861 when

it suspended, its publishers believing that it was the only paper in

Kansas that outlived the town in which it started.

Among those engaged in business in Sumner on October 1, 1857, the _Daily

Gazette_ shows the following:

John P. Wheeler, attorney and counsellor at law, commissioner of deeds,

dealer in real estate, etc.

Kahn & Fassler, general store, on Front street, between Washington

avenue and Chestnut street.

Mayer & Rohrmann, carpenters and builders.

Barnard & Wheeler, proprietors of the Sumner Brick Yard.

Wm. M. Reed, contractor, Atchison and Sumner.

John Armor, steam saw mill, in the city.

Butcher & Brothers, general store on Front street, between Washington

avenue and Olive street.

Allen Green, painter and glazier.

S. J. Bennett, boot and shoe store, corner of Washington avenue and

Fourth street.

Arthur M. Claflin, general land agent, forwarding and commission agent.

J. P. Wheeler and A. M. Claflin, lumber, office with the Sumner Company.

H. S. Baker, proprietor of Baker’s Hotel, corner of Front and Olive

streets, near steamboat landing.

A. Barber, general merchandise, Front street, between Washington avenue

and Olive street.

Lietzenburger & Co., blacksmiths, wagon makers, etc., Cedar street,

between Third and Fourth streets.

D. Newcomb. M. D., office in postoffice building, corner of Third street

and Washington avenue. Mr. Newcomb also dealt in lime, and on September

24, received a large and select stock of hardware, stoves, etc.

When the Territorial legislature of 1858 met, a bill was introduced,

incorporating the Sumner Company, Cyrus F. Currier, Samuel F. Harsh, J.

W. Morris, Isaac G. Losse and John P. Wheeler, their associates and

successors, constituting the company. The act also provided that the

corporation should have the power to purchase and hold, and enter by

preëmption and otherwise, any quantity of land where the town of Sumner

is now located, not to exceed one thousand acres, etc.

A ferry at Sumner was also incorporated by the legislature of 1858, J.

W. Morris, Cyrus F. Currier and Samuel Harsh being the incorporators.

This boat plied between Atchison and Sumner and the Missouri side.

In 1858 Samuel Hollister built a steam sawmill, adding a gristmill

later.

By the end of 1858 Sumner had outstripped its rival, Atchison, in

population, and steps were taken looking towards the incorporation of

the town. Early in the beginning of the legislature of 1859, articles of

incorporation were passed and received the approval of Governor Samuel

Medary on February 9. These articles of incorporation were later amended

by an act passed by the first State legislature, which was approved June

3, 1861.

The decline of Sumner began with the drought which started in the fall

of 1859 and prevailed through the year 1860. In June, 1860, a cyclone

struck the town and either blew down or damaged nearly every building,

this calamity being followed in September by a visitation of

grasshoppers, all of which were potent factors in wiping Sumner off the

map. Some of the houses which could be moved were taken to Atchison, and

some to farms in the immediate vicinity.

One of the most interesting accounts that appeared about Sumner was

written by H. Clay Park, an old citizen of Atchison, who for many years

was editor and part owner of the _Atchison Patriot_. It would not be

just either to Mr. Park or to Sumner, were this account not perpetuated

in this volume, and it, therefore, appears in full as follows:

“THE RISE AND FALL OF SUMNER.

“Three miles south of Atchison, Kansas, is the site of a dead city,

whose streets once were filled with the clamor of busy traffic and

echoed to the tread of thousands of oxen and mules that in the pioneer

days of the Great West transported the products of the East across the

Great American Desert to the Rocky mountains. It was a city in which for

a few years twenty-five hundred men and women and children lived and

labored and loved, in which many lofty aspirations were born, and in

which several young men began careers that became historical.

“This city was located on what the early French voyagers called the

‘Grand Detour’ of the Missouri river. No more rugged and picturesque

site for a city or one more inaccessible and with more unpropitious

environments could have been selected. It was literally built in and on

the everlasting hills, covered with a primeval forest so dense that the

shadows chased the sunbeams away. It sprang into existence so suddenly

and imperceptibly it might almost have been considered a creation of the

magician’s wand. It was named Sumner in honor of the great Massachusetts

senator. Its official motto was ‘Pro lege et grege’ (For the law and the

people). This would, in the light of subsequent events, have been more

suggestive: ‘I shall fall, like a bright exhalation in the evening.’

“Sumner’s first citizens came mostly from Massachusetts, and were imbued

with the spirit of creed and cant, self-reliance and fanaticism that

could have been born only on Plymouth Rock. They had come to the

frontier to make Kansas a free State and to build a city, within whose

walls all previous conditions of slavery should be disregarded and where

all men born should be regarded equal. The time—1856—was auspicious.

Kansas was both a great political and military battlefield, upon which

the question of the institution of slavery was to be settled for all

time.

“The growth of Sumner was phenomenal. A lithograph printed in 1857 shows

streets of stately buildings, imposing seats of learning, church spires

that pierced the clouds, elegant hotels and theaters, the river full of

floating palaces, its levee lined with bales and barrels of merchandise,

and the white smoke from numerous factories hanging over the city like a

banner of peace and prosperity. To one who in that day approached Sumner

from the east and saw it across the river, which like a burnished

mirror, reflected its glories, it did indeed present an imposing aspect.

“One day the steamboat Duncan S. Carter landed at Sumner. On its

hurricane deck was John J. Ingalls, then only twenty-four years old. As

his eye swept the horizon his prophetic soul uttered these words:

‘Behold the home of the future senator from Kansas.’ Here the young

college graduate, who since that day became the senator from Kansas,

lived and dreamed until Sumner’s star had set and Atchison’s sun had

risen, and then he moved to Atchison, bringing with him Sumner’s

official seal and the key to his hotel.

“Here lived that afterwards brilliant author and journalist, Albert D.

Richardson, whose tragic death some years ago in the counting room of

the _New York Tribune_ is well remembered. His ‘Beyond the Mississippi’

is to this day the most fascinating account ever written of the

boundless West.

“Here lived the nine-year-old Minnie Hauk, who was one day to become a

renowned prima donna and charm two continents with her voice, and who

was to wed the Count Wartegg. Minnie was born in poverty and cradled in

adversity. Her mother was a poor washerwoman in Sumner.

“Here lived John E. Remsburg, the now noted author, lecturer and free-

thinker. Mr. Remsburg has probably delivered more lectures in the last

thirty years than any man in America. He is now the leader of the Free-

Thought Federation of America.

“Here Walter A. Wood, the big manufacturer of agricultural implements,

lived and made and mended wagons. Here Lovejoy, ‘the Yankee preacher,’

preached and prayed. Here lived ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister’ Newcomb, from

whom has descended a long line of zealous and eminent Methodists. Here

was born Paul Hull, the well known Chicago journalist.

“And Sumner was the city that the Rev. Pardee Butler lifted up his hands

and blessed and prophesied would grow and wax fat when the ‘upper

landing’ would sleep in a dishonored and forgotten grave, as he floated

by it on his raft, clad in tar and feathers. The ‘upper landing’ was the

opprobrious title conferred by Sumner upon Atchison. The two towns were

bitter enemies. Sumner was ‘abolitionist;’ Atchison was ‘border

ruffian.’ In Atchison the ‘nigger’ was a slave; in Sumner he was a

fetich. It was in Atchison that the ‘abolition preacher,’ Pardee Butler,

was tarred and feathered and set adrift on a raft in the river. He

survived the tortures of his coat of degradation and the ‘chuck-holes’

of the Missouri river and lived to become a prohibition fanatic and a

Democratic Presidential elector.

“Jonathan Lang, alias ‘Shang,’ the hero of Senator Ingalls’ ‘Catfish

Aristocracy,’ and the ‘last mayor of Sumner,’ lived and died in Sumner.

When all his lovely companions had faded and gone ‘Shang’ still pined on

the stem. The senator’s description of this type of a vanished race is

unique:

“‘To the most minute observer his age was a question of the gravest

doubt. He might have been thirty; he might have been a century, with no

violation of the probabilities. His hair was a sandy sorrel, something

like a Rembrandt interior, and strayed around his freckled scalp like

the top layer of a hayrick in a tornado. His eyes were two ulcers, half

filled with pale blue starch. A thin, sharp nose projected above a

lipless mouth that seemed always upon the point of breaking into the

most grievous lamentations, and never opened save to take whiskey and

tobacco in and let oaths and saliva out. A long, slender neck, yellow

and wrinkled after the manner of a lizard’s belly, bore this dome of

thought upon its summit, itself projecting from a miscellaneous

assortment of gent’s furnishing goods, which covered a frame of

unearthly longitude and unspeakable emaciation. Thorns and thongs

supplied the place of buttons upon the costume of this Brummel of the

bottom, coarsely patched beyond recognition of the original fabric. The

coat had been constructed for a giant, the pants for a pigmy. They were

too long in the waist and too short in the leg, and flapped loosely

around his shrunk shanks high above the point where his fearful feet

were partially concealed by mismated shoes that permitted his great toes

to peer from their gaping integuments, like the heads of two snakes of a

novel species and uncommon fetor. This princely phenomenon was topped

with a hat which had neither band nor brim nor crown:

“‘If that could shape be called which shape has none.

“‘His voice was high, shrill and querulous, and his manner an odd

mixture of fawning servility and apprehensive effrontery at the sight of

a “damned Yankee abolitionist,” whom he hated and feared next to a negro

who was not a slave.’

“The only error in the senator’s description of ‘Shang’ is that ‘Shang’

was ‘abolitionist’ himself, and ‘fit to free the nigger.’

‘Shang’ continued to live in Sumner until every house, save his

miserable hut, had vanished like the baseless fabric of a vision. He

claimed and was proud of the title, ‘the last mayor of Sumner.’ He died

a few years ago, and a little later lightning struck his cabin and it

was devoured by flames. And thus passed away the last relic of Sumner.

“In the flood tide of Sumner’s prosperity, 1856 to 1859—for before that

it was nothing, after that nothing—it had ambition to become the county

seat of the newly organized county of Atchison. J. P. Wheeler, president

of the Sumner Town Company, was a member of the lower house of the

Territorial legislature, and he ‘logrolled’ a bill through that body

conferring upon Sumner the title of county seat, but the Atchison ‘gang’

finally succeeded in getting the bill killed in the senate.

Subsequently, October, 1858, there was an election to settle the vexed

question of a county seat. Atchison won; Sumner lost.

“About this time Atchison secured its first railroad. The smoke from the

locomotive engines drifted to Sumner and enveloped it like a pall. The

decadence was at hand, and Sumner’s race to extinction and oblivion was

rapid. One day there was an exodus of citizens; the houses were torn

down and the timbers thereof carted away, and foundation stones were dug

up and carried hence. Successive summers’ rains and winters’ snows

furrowed streets and alleys beyond recognition and filled foundation

excavations to the level, and ere long a tangled mass of briers and

brambles hid away the last vestige of the once busy, ambitious city. The

forest, again unvexed by ax or saw, asserted his dominion once more, and

today, beneath the shadow cast by mighty oaks and sighing cottonwoods,

Sumner lies dead and forgotten.”

In the above article, reference is made by Mr. Park to Jonathan Lang,

and it is important in this connection to print herewith an excerpt from

the _Atchison Daily Globe_, December, 1915, relating to this interesting

character, which follows:

“The reunion of the Thirteenth Kansas infantry at Hiawatha Tuesday

recalls that the late Jonathan G. Lang, self-styled ‘Mayor of Old

Sumner,’ and hero of John J. Ingalls’ ‘Catfish Aristocracy,’ was a

soldier in this regiment, and was the butt of many jokes on the part of

his comrades in camp as he was in the days of civil life at old Sumner.

Thomas J. Payne, a sergeant in the Thirteenth, now living in California,

relates an amusing story of ‘Old Shang,’ as Lang was generally called by

his comrades: When the regiment was mustered into service on September

28, 1862, and the newly assigned officers were reviewing their troops at

Camp Stanton, in Atchison, the tall, gaunt form of Lang (for he was

nearly seven feet tall and very angular) towered above the rest of the

men like the stately cottonwood above the hazel-brush. Riding up and

down the lines, and scanning the troops with critical eye to see that

there was no breech of ranks or decorum, the gaze of Colonel Bowen could

not help but fall upon the lofty and lanky form of Lang, rising several

heads above any of his comrades. The colonel paused, and pointing his

finger at the grenadier form in the ranks, shouted in thunderous tones,

‘Get down off that stump.’ A ripple of suppressed laughter immediately

passed along the lines, and when Colonel Bowen saw his mistake he

promptly revoked his order with a hearty chuckle and rode on towards the

end of the column. And not until twenty years later, when all that was

mortal of old Lang—his nearly seven feet of skin and bones—was laid way

to moulder with the ruins of old Sumner, did he finally ‘get down off of

that stump.’ He rests at the entrance of the Sumner cemetery and his

grave is marked with one of those small, regulation slabs such as are

furnished by the Government for the graves of dead soldiers and bears

this simple inscription: ‘J. G. Lang, Co. K. 13th Kansas Infantry.’

There are two other members of the Thirteenth Kansas buried at Sumner.

They are, John Scott, of Company D, and Albred Brown, of Company F.”

Another article relating to Old Sumner, which is entertaining and

instructive, was written by E. W. Howe, and is taken from the Historical

Edition of the _Atchison Daily Globe_, issued July 16, 1894:

“The founder of Sumner was John P. Wheeler, a red-headed, blue-eyed,

consumptive, slim, freckled enthusiast from Massachusetts. He was a

surveyor by profession, and also founded the town of Hiawatha. He was

one of the adventurers who came to Kansas as a result of the excitement

of 1855–’56, and was only twenty-one years old when he came West. Most

of the men who had much to do with early Kansas history were young.

“The town was not named for Charles Sumner, as is generally supposed,

but for his brother, George Sumner, one of the original stockholders. At

that time Atchison was controlled by Southern sympathizers—P. T. Abell,

the Stringfellows, the McVeys, A. J. Westbrook and others—and

abolitionists were not welcome in the town. It was believed that a city

would be built within a few miles of this point, as it was favorable for

overland freighting, being farther West than any other point on the

Missouri river. On the old French maps Atchison was known as the ‘Grand

Detour,’ meaning the great bend in the river to the westward.

“Being a violent abolitionist, John P. Wheeler determined to establish a

town where abolitionists would be welcome, and Sumner was the result.

The town was laid out in 1856, and the next year Wheeler had a

lithograph made, which he took East for use in booming his town.

“Among others captured by means of this lithograph was John J. Ingalls.

Wheeler and Ingalls were both acquainted with a Boston man of means

named Samuel A. Walker. Wheeler wanted Walker to invest in Sumner, and

as Walker knew that Ingalls was anxious to go West, he asked him to stop

at Sumner and report upon it as a point for the investment of Boston

money.

“Mr. Ingalls arrived in Sumner on the 4th of October, 1858, on the

steamer Duncan S. Carter, which left St. Louis four days before. The

town then contained about two thousand people, five hundred more than

Atchison; but Sumner was already declining, and Mr. Ingalls did not

advise his friend, Walker, to invest.

“A hotel building costing $16,000.00, had been built by Samuel

Hollister. A famous steamboat cook had charge of the kitchen in the old

days, and the stages running between Jefferson City and St. Joe stopped

there every day for dinner. Jefferson City was then the end of the

railroad—the Pacific Railroad of Missouri, now the Missouri Pacific—

which runs through the deserted site of Sumner, and directly over the

foundation of the wagon factory built by Levi A. Woods. This wagon

factory was one of the results of Wheeler’s audacious lithograph, and

few wagons were actually manufactured. The factory was heavily insured,

and burned.

“Albert R. Richardson was a citizen of Sumner, when Mr. Ingalls arrived

there; also James Hauk, the father of Minnie Hauk, who has since become

famous as a singer in grand opera. James Hauk was a carpenter, whose

wife operated a boarding house. Minnie Hauk waited on the table, and was

noted among the boarders as a smart little girl with a long yellow braid

down her back, who could play the piano pretty well. The next year Hauk

made a house boat and floated down the river to New Orleans.

“When John J. Ingalls went to Sumner, a young man of twenty-four, he

took great interest in such characters as Archie Boler and Jonathan

Grander Lang. Lang was a jug fisherman in the river, melon raiser, truck

patch farmer and town drunkard. Ingalls says that Lang was really a

bright fellow. He had been a dragoon in the Mexican War, and his stories

of experiences in the West were intensely interesting. Ingalls used to

go out in Lang’s boat when he was jugging for catfish and spend hours

listening to his talk. Finally Ingalls wrote his ‘Catfish Aristocracy,’

and Lang recognized himself as the hero. He was very indignant and

threatened to sue Ingalls, having been advised by some jackleg lawyer

that the article was libelous. Lang lived on a piece of land belonging

to Ingalls at the time, and Ingalls told the writer of this the other

day that it was actually true that he settled with Lang for a sack of

flour and a side of bacon. Lang served in the Civil war, and long after

its close, when his old friend was president of the United States

Senate, he secured him a pension and a lot of back pay. But this he

squandered in marrying. His pension money was a curse to him, for it

only served to put a lot of wolves on his trail.

“When the war broke out the Atchison men who objected to abolitionists

settling in their town were driven out of the country, and this

attracted a good many of the citizens of Sumner. But its death blow came

in June, 1860, when nearly every house in the place was either blown

down or badly damaged by a tornado. This was the first and only tornado

in the history of this immediate section.”

Reference is made in both of these articles to John J. Ingalls, who

arrived in Sumner from Boston, Mass., October 4, 1858. Mr. Ingalls was a

graduate of Williams College a short time before, and at the time he

decided to go West he was a student in a law office in Boston, where his

attention was first called to Sumner by an elaborate lithograph of the

town displayed by Mr. Wheeler, the promoter. The impressions of Mr.

Ingalls upon his arrival in Sumner are, therefore, pertinent and convey

some idea of the shock he received when he landed at the Sumner levee.

In a letter which he subsequently wrote describing the event, he said:

“That chromatic triumph of lithographed mendacity, supplemented by the

loquacious embellishments of a lively adventurer who has been laying out

town sites and staking off corner lots for some years past in Tophet,

exhibited a scene in which the attractions of art, nature, science,

commerce and religion were artistically blended. Innumerable drays were

transporting from a fleet of gorgeous steamboats vast cargoes of foreign

and domestic merchandise over Russ pavements to colossal warehouses of

brick and stone. Dense, wide streets of elegant residences rose with

gentle ascent from the stores of the tranquil stream. Numerous parks,

decorated with rare trees, shrubbery and fountains were surrounded with

the mansions of the great and the temples of their devotion. The

adjacent eminences were crowned with costly piles which wealth, directed

by intelligence and controlled by taste, had erected for the education

of the rising generation of Sumnerites. The only shadow upon the

enchanting landscape fell from the clouds of smoke that poured from the

towering shafts of her acres of manufactories, while the whole

circumference of the undulating prairie was white with endless, sinuous

trains of wagons, slowly moving toward the mysterious region of the

Farther West.”

OCENA.

Ocena was laid out in Atchison county in 1855, and for a time it gave

promise of becoming an important place. Ocena was located on the

northeast bank of Stranger creek, on what is known as the McBride farm,

in the south half of the northeast quarter of section 22, township 6,

range 19, about a mile north of the present site of Pardee. The first

postoffice in Center township, and one of the first in Atchison county,

was established at Ocena with William Crosby as postmaster in August,

1855. In 1856, T. C. McBride was appointed postmaster, and served until

the office was removed to Pardee in 1858, when S. G. Moore was appointed

postmaster.

T. C. McBride was one of the early settlers of Center township, having

arrived there in March, 1856, and settled on the land on which the town

of Ocena was built. He was one of the early merchants of the place,

having a small store, in which he kept the postoffice. The mail was

carried from Atchison to Ocena by stage. McBride was a Tennesseean, born

in 1826. In the fall of 1857, in a grove on the McBride farm, the first

church service in that section was held. It was of the Methodist

Episcopal denomination.

Ocena was the first important stopping place west of Atchison. The old

_Squatter Sovereign_, of Atchison, in its issue of December 5, 1857,

contained the following advertisement of the town: “The truth plainly

told will show that Ocena is already a city. The surface of the earth

was so moulded by the plastic hand of the Creator that a few points in

the wide expanse of Nature were destined to eclipse all others. Ocena is

one of those points. Located as it is, on the northeast bank of Stranger

creek, in the county of Atchison, where roads leading from Doniphan and

St. Joe to Lecompton are intersected by roads leading from Atchison to

Grasshopper Falls and Osawkee; and also being upon the great

thoroughfare running up and down the valley of the Stranger, it offers

more inducements for a large and prosperous inland town than any other

place in Kansas Territory. All persons anxious to thrive and desirous of

obtaining a home on reasonable terms will do well to settle in Ocena.

For further particulars in reference to the town apply to Isaac S.

Hascall, president, or M. C. Finney, secretary.”

_Freedom’s Champion_, in its issue of July 3, 1858, says of the town:

“Ocena, besides having the most musical name, is one of the most

beautiful places in Kansas. A postoffice has been established there and

several new buildings are being erected. It is destined to be a thriving

little place.”

Ocena was killed by Pardee, a town which was started a short distance to

the south of it, but neither amounted to much from a municipal and

business standpoint. Pardee is now only a country village. It was first

platted as a town by James Brewer, in the string of 1857, and was named

in honor of Pardee Butler, of border warfare fame. In the winter of 1856

Mr. Butler preached his first sermon in Pardee, the services being held

in the school house, which had been completed during the previous fall,

and opened by James Brewer in December. Caleb May, the first settler in

Center township, was the first president of the Pardee Town Company.

Pardee Butler was afterwards president; Milo Carleton, secretary; Wm. J.

May, treasurer; S. G. Moore, A. Elliott and W. Wakefield, trustees. Mr.

Moore opened the first store in Pardee in 1858, and became the first

postmaster as aforestated. Mr. Carleton put a wind gristmill in

operation at Pardee at an early day, but it was destroyed by a storm.

LANCASTER.

Lancaster is one of the oldest towns in the county. In the issue of

October 16, 1858, of _Freedom’s Champion_, the following advertisement

with reference to Lancaster appears:

“LANCASTER.

“Lancaster City is the name of a new town just springing into existence.

It is located 10 miles direct west of our city (Atchison) Atchison

county, K. T., on the east half of Section 32, Township 5, Range 19, the

great military road to Fts. Kearney, Laramie, Bridge, and to Santa Fe,

Utah, Washington Territory, Gadson Purchase, California, New Mexico,

etc., passes through the town site. Also roads leading from Nebraska

City, St. Joseph, Doniphan, and to Grasshopper Falls, Topeka, Lecompton

and Lawrence.

“A more beautiful situation for a large and prosperous city could not be

found in the Territory, or the Great West. Its site is rolling and dry,

climate healthy and salubrious as heart could wish for. The surrounding

country cannot be surpassed for its magnificent undulating prairies,

being one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the whole country.

“Excellent coal, building stone and timber, within two, and two and a

half miles. This town has been under way but little over two months, and

notwithstanding the hard times, quite a number of buildings are already

erected, among which will be found a large and commodious hotel, a good

store, blacksmith and carpenter shops, post office, etc., etc.

Arrangements are made for the erection of several more dwelling houses,

also for the erection during this month, of a Union church, (the first

in the county) and with liberty heretofore unequalled in Kansas, Mr. J.

W. Smith, the President of the Company, authorizes us to say that he

will give good lots gratis to mechanics, laborers, and others, who will

apply for them soon, or who will erect improvements on them in six

months, worth $200 or more. This, we think, a good chance for men who

want a comfortable home in the best section of our country. The company

now offer to sell lots or shares at reasonable rates, and are prepared

to make warrantee deeds for the same, having purchased the site and

obtained the title for the same of the Government of the United States

on the 26th day of June, 1858. Persons wishing to live in an interior

town, will do well to visit Lancaster before investing elsewhere.”

While this little town did not prove to be all that its promoters

expected of it, it continued as a good trading point for many years, and

in 1916 remains one of the prosperous communities of the county. In

addition to the one bank which it supports, reference to which has

already been made, Lancaster, in 1915, has seven stores, a two-room

public school, three churches, one elevator, one lumber yard, a good

hotel and a garage. In 1915 its enterprising citizens built an electric

high tensioned line connecting with the Effingham line out of Atchison,

to supply the town with electric lights, and its citizens are now

enjoying all the benefits of electricity.

About 80,000 bushels of grain, and an average of seventy-five cars of

live stock are shipped out of Lancaster annually. Its merchants are

enterprising and prosperous, and many comfortable and commodious homes

have been built in this little town. It is located in one of the finest

agricultural sections of the county, and the surrounding country is in a

state of high cultivation, and peopled by prosperous and thrifty

farmers.

PORT WILLIAM.

In the _Squatter Sovereign_ of March 11, 1856, published at Atchison,

appeared the following advertisement of Port William:

“This new and beautiful town site is situated on the Missouri river, in

Kansas Territory, three or four miles above the town of Iatan, in the

heart of the most densely populated part of Kansas; surrounded by the

finest soil and timber in that Territory, with a permanent landing,

commanding a view of the river for several miles above and below. The

principal part of said town is located on a bed of stone coal of the

best quality. Arrangements are being made to have said stone coal bed

opened and wrought by a joint stock company early in the spring, at

which time there will be a sale of lots. There is now in course of

erection a good steam saw mill, which will be in successful operation in

a few weeks; also, a large and commodious tavern is in process of

erection, which will be opened for the accommodation of the public in a

short time. Persons wishing to procure lots immediately will have

opportunity of so doing by calling on Henry Bradley or Jonathan Hartman,

both of whom are authorized agents to sell and dispose of lots, and one

or both may at all times be found on the premises ready to accommodate

purchasers upon the most liberal terms. H. B. Wallace, Amos Rees, Henry

Debard, H. C. Bradley, H. B. Herndon, James G. Spratt, W. C. Remington,

James W. Bradley, P. J. Collins, trustees.”

Of the above named trustees Judge James G. Spratt, W. C. Remington and

Henry Debard were prominent citizens of Platte county, Missouri, and

members of the town company that incorporated Port William in 1855.

James M. and Henry Bradley and H. B. Herndon were also members of this

company. Henry Debard was a Kentuckian, born in Clark county, November

24, 1801, and came to Platte county at an early day, later removing to

Kansas. He was a prominent Mason, and took an active part in Masonic

work in Missouri for many years. He was a cabinet maker, but did not

work much at his trade. He died in Platte City, October 5, 1875.

Amos Rees was born at Winchester, Va., December 2, 1800, and came to

Missouri at an early age, locating in Platte county, March 1, 1845. For

many years he was a prominent attorney of that county. He moved to

Kansas in 1855, and died, December 29, 1885. Dr. H. B. Wallace, who was

interested in Port William, was a physician at Platte City, and a member

of the town board in 1858. He invested largely in St. Jose, and the war

reduced him almost to poverty. He died, February 24, 1863. Judge Paxton,

in his “Annals of Platte County,” simply mentions him as having married

the “beautiful and accomplished Ann E. Owen.”

J. Butler Chapman arrived in Kansas in the spring of 1854, made a trip

over the territory, and then published a small volume, entitled “History

of Kansas and Emigrant’s Guide.” He refers to Port William as

“Williamsport, a prospective town a short distance above Kickapoo.” “The

bluffs,” he continues, “are high and precipitous, and the land broken

until you reach the high rolling prairie back some three miles. The

whole country is settled on with a view of preëmption.”

A company known as the Port William Sharp’s Rifles, numbering eighty-

one, rank and file, was formed at Port William, in October, 1856. The

commissioned officers elected were James Adkins, captain; Henry C.

Bradley, first lieutenant; James M. Bradley, second lieutenant; S.

Bowman, third lieutenant. The company was enrolled, or was intended to

be enrolled, in the first regiment, first brigade, northern division of

the Kansas militia, and applied for arms and commissions. The Port

William Town Company was incorporated by an act of the Territorial

legislature in 1855 and the town company was composed of William C.

Remington, James G. Spratt, Henry Debard, James M. Bradley, Henry

Bradley, Horace B. Herndon and William B. Almond.

General William B. Almond, one of the incorporators of Pt. William, was

a noted man in the West in the early days. He was a Virginian, who came

to Platte county, Missouri, when the Platte Purchase was opened, and

settled near the Buchanan county line. At a very early period he had

been connected with the American Fur Company, and as a mountaineer had

many adventures. During the thirties he was a brigadier general of the

State militia in Missouri. He was one of the foremost “Forty-niners” to

California, leading a company to the land of gold, among whom was Ben

Holladay, afterwards famous as the originator of the “pony express” and

other Western enterprises. While in California General Almond

distinguished himself as a Territorial judge in San Francisco. Returning

to Platte county in 1851 he was elected circuit judge, was a candidate

for lieutenant governor, and filled other offices and places of

distinction and prominence. He was also connected with mercantile,

milling and other enterprises. He lived for some time in Topeka and

Leavenworth, and died at the latter place in 1860.

Judge James G. Spratt, another of the promoters of old Port William, was

also a man of some prominence. He came to the West from Smith county,

Virginia, where he was born, 1826, and, like General Almond, settled in

Platte county at a very early day. In 1843 he was appointed a justice of

the peace in Platte county, and was afterwards deputy county clerk,

probate judge and held other positions. For some time he was engaged in

the practice of law, and was in partnership with Hon. Joseph E.

Merryman, in Platte City. In 1864 he went to Montana where he became a

mine speculator. He died November 13, 1881, and his remains were brought

back to Platte for burial. W. H. Spratt, a brother of Judge Spratt, was

at one time sheriff of Platte county.

William C. Remington was another pioneer of Platte, like General Almond

and Judge Spratt, a Virginian by birth, who came west at a very early

day. He was one of the early assessors of Platte county, and

subsequently was elected circuit clerk. He was one of the trustees of

the Platte City Town Company when it was incorporated in 1843. He was

also a member of the company that laid off the town of St. Mary’s at the

mouth of Bee creek in 1857, but no lots were ever sold. Mr. Remington

was one of the early merchants of Platte City, one of the proprietors of

the _Platte City Weekly Atlas_, and was interested in various other

enterprises. His handsome brick residence in Platte City was among those

burned by federal orders in July, 1864. He died December 20, 1864, in

Omaha, where he was operating a hotel.

Of Henry Debard, another member of the Port William Town Company, the

writer has not yet found any record. The Bradleys lived in Platte

county, opposite Port William for many years, moved over to the Kansas

side early in 1854, and with Squire Horace B. Herndon started the old

town. The Bradleys opened a general store and James M. Bradley was

appointed postmaster when the postoffice was established in April, 1855.

Squire Herndon was one of the earliest justices of the peace in Kansas,

and had much business in his court in the early days, as Port William

was one of the roughest of the border towns.

Port William was located eight miles below Atchison. It is one of the

most interesting localities from a historical standpoint in Atchison

county and northeastern Kansas. It is one of the oldest settlements in

Kansas, and for a time in the early days was one of the promising

villages of the territory. In fact, it was of enough importance, not in

size, but as a prospective populace, to be mentioned by travelers of

that time, as one of the principal towns of Kansas. Father Pierre Jean

de Smet, the Jesuit missionary, in a letter written February 26, 1859,

says: “A great number of towns and villages have sprung up as if by

enchantment in the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The principal

towns of Kansas are Wyandotte, Delaware, Douglas, Marysville, Iola,

Atchison, Ft. Scott, Pawnee, Lecompton, Neosho, Richmond, Tecumseh,

Lawrence, Port William, Doniphan, Paola, Alexandria, Indianola, Easton,

Leavenworth and others.” The history of old Doniphan, Sumner and

Kickapoo has long been well established, but that of Port William has

been neglected and has remained obscure. Port William never was much of

a town, as were its rivals, Doniphan, Sumner and Kickapoo, but it was

proposedly in the race for municipal supremacy in the pioneer days, and

though its star may never have attained the ascendency, its story is at

least worthy of preservation in the archives of Atchison county history.

Port William was started in 1856 by Henry and James M. Bradley, John T.

and Albred Bailey, and Jonathan Hartman. The two Bradleys and John T.

Bailey composed the town company. The Bradleys conducted a general

store, and a postoffice was established in April, 1855, with Henry

Bradley as first postmaster. This was the first postoffice in Walnut

township. Jonathan Hartman owned and operated a sawmill, the first in

Atchison county, in 1854, and made the first lumber ever sawed in the

county. There were several saloons, and later a blacksmith shop, a

carpenter shop and other small industries were started. It has been

surmised by someone that Port Williams, as it is sometimes called, was

named for a Missouri river steamboat captain named Williams, as

steamboats often tied up at the place in the early days. There are

others who believe it was so-called for the late “Uncle Frank” Williams,

one of the fathers of the colored settlement which was started in that

vicinity at a later day. The correct name of the place, however, is Port

William, instead of Port Williams, and it is known that it was so named

more than fifty years ago, or nearly twenty years before “Uncle Frank”

Williams settled there. The correct origin of the name is probably given

by the late W. J. Bailey, of Atchison, who was one of the very first

settlers of that vicinity. He said that in 1854 a man named William

Johnson came across from the settlement about Iatan, Mo., and took up

the claim on which Port William was afterwards built. It was a likely

claim and Johnson soon had trouble on his hands in holding the property.

Several men tried to chase him off with guns, but Johnson managed to

make such a good defense as to repel them. He stayed in his cabin a

week, not daring to come out for fear of being shot. He won out and held

the claim. The other fellows then referred to his cabin as Fort William

(that was his first name). Soon after Jake Yunt, from Missouri,

established a hand ferryboat, and by and by steamboats began to land

there. Then the name was changed to Port William, and this is the proper

name of the place, although on the Missouri Pacific station board now

standing there it is marked “Port Williams.”

There are but few men who came to Atchison county earlier than W. J.

Bailey, of Atchison. He crossed the river from Platte county on June 12,

1854, and settled at Port William, and, with the exception of a few

years’ residence in Colorado, has lived in this county ever since.

Luther Dickerson, who was generally known as the “oldest inhabitant,”

came here the same month that Mr. Bailey did. When Mr. Bailey first

arrived at Port William he built a one room cabin on his claim near that

place, and to do so was obliged to drag logs with one horse a distance

of a mile and a half. In 1855 he brought his cattle over. He said the

grass all over this county was ankle deep and afforded fine pasturage.

There was no town at Atchison then, but Challiss Bros. conducted a store

on the river bank, and George Million operated a hand ferryboat. Mr.

Bailey worked for Million three years.

“Those were happy times,” said Mr. Bailey, “we met around among

neighboring cabins and had parties. When we had a fiddle we danced.” For

several years Mr. Bailey was with a freighting crew between Ft.

Leavenworth and Ft. Kearney, most of the time as a wagon-master. They

generally drove twenty-six wagons with six yoke of oxen to each wagon

and hauled Government supplies. Once they were surrounded by Indians and

were in imminent danger of being annihilated, when General Harney with a

company of troops came to their rescue and chased the red-skins to Ash

Hollow, near Ft. Kearney, where a bloody skirmish took place and the

Indians were routed. Speaking of old Port William, Mr. Bailey said:

“Although laid out as an investment, the town was a failure. The little

creek flowed through the center of the town, dividing the stores and

saloons from the sawmill, blacksmith shop and carpenter shop. No city

government encased the stream with cement tiling, and the best bridge

the town ever afforded was built by felling a cottonwood tree across the

stream.” Port William had its “town bullies” and fights were of frequent

occurrence. Mr. Bailey said that the “town bullies” were Dan McLoud,

Bill Pates and Bob Gibson. “It was common,” he said, “for farmers to go

to Port William every Saturday afternoon to witness the fights and

drunks.” On one occasion a man was badly shot up and another jumped into

the river and swam across. Mr. Bailey said the first election there

contained 250 ballots, although only sixty people voted. There were two

ballot boxes, one controlled by the pro-slavery and the other by the

Free State people. Eight or ten men stood around the balloting places

with guns, and people voted five or six times, though under different

names.

The “village blacksmith” of old Port William, and one of the early

justices of the peace of Walnut township, was Thomas J. Payne, later

living at Canyon City, Colo. Mr. Payne settled at Port William, March

18, 1855, and was one of the pioneer blacksmiths of Kansas. He operated

blacksmith shops at three of the old towns of Atchison county, Port

William, Sumner and Mt. Pleasant. He was appointed a justice of the

peace by Governor Shannon, in 1856. The office of “county squire” was of

more importance in those stirring times than it is now. Mr. Payne’s son,

Charles Sumner Payne, was the first child born at old Sumner. His birth

occurred September 25, 1857. He was named by the town company, who made

out and presented to him a deed for a lot in the once thriving city.

Another son was born at Sumner on the day that John Brown was hanged,

and was named for the great abolitionist. A third son was named for Jim

Lane. Thomas J. Payne enlisted as a private in Company F, Thirteenth

Kansas infantry, at Atchison, August 20, 1862, and was later promoted to

orderly sergeant. He was discharged at Ft. Smith, Ark., October 29,

1864. Then he was immediately appointed by the secretary of war first

lieutenant of Company B, First Regiment of Kansas infantry, colored. He

took part in many engagements, and was mustered out in August, 1865. He

was born in Georgetown, Ohio, the town in which General Grant was born.

There are few men in Kansas who have served as a justice of the peace

longer than Mr. Payne. He held the office in Atchison county for a

number of years, at Robinson, Kan., for eighteen years, and later at

Horton, Kan., for several years.

The old Horace B. Herndon farm at Port William, now owned and occupied

by Frank Bluma, Sr., was known as the “Old Indian farm,” in the early

days. According to W. J. Bailey it was so-called because an Indian known

as “Kickapoo John” located on it previous to the settlement of Kansas by

the whites and was still living there with numerous other Indians when

Mr. Bailey first came to that locality. Mr. Bailey said that the butts

of tepee poles could be seen sticking in the ground on the site of Port

William for some time afterwards. In 1854 Horace B. Herndon preëmpted

the “Old Indian farm,” built a cabin thereon at the southwest corner of

the field near the creek, and put an old negro slave in it to hold the

claim for him. The old darkey died and was buried in the family burying

ground on the farm about 1855. He was probably the first colored man who

ever lived and died in what afterwards became famous as the “Port

William colored settlement.” This was about twenty years before this

community became generally settled by colored people. The old Herndon

family residence, one of the landmarks of this region, is still standing

and is occupied by Frank Bluma and family. There is evidence that the

“old Indian farm” was occupied by Indians long before “Kickapoo John’s”

time for the old field is strewn with various fragments representing the

stone age and prehistoric times. Mr. Herndon died a number of years ago.

He was another of the early justices of the peace of Walnut township and

was generally known as “Squire” Herndon. He was also a public

administrator for Atchison county, and was one of the most prominent

citizens of the southern part of the county for many years. He was the

father of Mrs. Henry King and James Herndon, residents of Round Prairie.

Mrs. King, then Miss Virginia Herndon, was the “belle” of the old town

of Port William, and was a social favorite throughout this section of

the county.

Another early settler of Port William was Henry Luth, the veteran

carpenter, who moved from Atchison to Leavenworth. Mr. Luth lived in

Port William for several years in the early fifties, removing to

Atchison in 1857. He built many of the first houses in this section of

the country. A large walnut cupboard and other furniture in Mr. Luth’s

home he made from walnut timber cut at Port William and sawed into

lumber at the old Hartman sawmill at that place. Mr. Luth had a little

shop at Port William in which he made furniture. Henry Hausner,

Atchison’s well known commission merchant, took a claim at Port William

in 1855, but was cheated out of it. Andy Brown, for many years an

Atchison flagman, was an early settler of Port William. With Thomas

Taylor, now living at Perry, Kan., he crossed the river to Kansas on

Jake Yunt’s ferry just above Port William in 1854. Mr. Brown’s father

had taken a claim at Port William and Taylor one adjoining it. The

latter helped Samuel Dickson build his cabin shanty on the site of

Atchison in the fall of 1854.

Ex-Sheriff Fred Hartman, of this county, now deceased, lived at Port

William in the early days. His father, Jonathan Hartman, in 1854, put

into operation at that place one of the very first sawmills in the

Territory. It furnished lumber for many of the first houses in this

section. The lumber was sawed from the fine timber which grew along

Little Walnut creek. Fred Hartman said that in 1856 Bob Gibson brought

his famous “Kickapoo Rangers” to Port William for the purpose of

lynching his father, Jonathan Hartman, on account of his most avowed

Free Soil principles. They stayed around a while, and as Mr. Hartman did

not seem to be the least bit intimidated, they finally left and never

molested him again. It was during this time that Pardee Butler was

placed on a raft at Atchison and set adrift in the river. He landed just

above Port William, and went at once to Mr. Hartman’s for assistance.

Not deeming it safe for Mr. Butler to remain in Port William, Mr.

Hartman took him out to the home of Jasper Oliphant, about two miles

west of the village, where he stayed at night and finally reached his

home in safety. Jasper Oliphant was another of the earliest settlers of

this locality. He was assassinated some years ago by Bob Scruggs, a

desperate character, who at the same time shot and killed John Groff,

another prominent Walnut township citizen, and Scruggs was captured and

hanged to a tree near Oak Mills. The tragic deaths of two such

substantial citizens as Mr. Oliphant and Mr. Groff produced a profound

sensation throughout Walnut township. In the spring of 1857 Jonathan

Hartman sold his sawmill and moved to a farm near the present site of

Parnell, where he died. Fred Hartman served during the war in the

Thirteenth Kansas with Thomas J. Payne, mentioned elsewhere.

The wagon road leading from Port William westward to the “old military

road,” bears the unique distinction of crossing the same creek fourteen

times in a distance of less than three miles. It is not believed that

there is another creek in Atchison county that is crossed an equal

number of times by one road. Little Walnut creek, which empties into the

Missouri river at Port William, has its source near the Leavenworth

county line. It flows northward through a heavily timbered country, and

is one of the prettiest little streams in Atchison county. It was

formerly called Bragg’s creek, after “Jimmy” Braggs, an early-day

Missouri Pacific section foreman, who lived on its banks. Braggs

afterward moved to Holton, where he died and the name of the creek was

changed to Little Walnut, after its neighbor, Walnut creek, which

empties into the river at Dalby, about two miles above.

ARRINGTON.