Anderson County KS Archives History - Books .....Chapter VI 1877
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Book Title: THE HISTORY OF ANDERSON COUNTY, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT TO THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1876.

CHAPTER VI.
  Arrival of C. E. Dewey and Party from Ohio— First Settlement on South
Pottowatomie—Death of Baer—Survey of Government Land—Location Kansas City
Townsite—Selection of Garnett Town-site by Dr. G. W. Cooper and Geo. A. Dunn—
Arrival of Louisville Colony, with Steam Mill— Prominent Settlers of Garnett in
1858-9.

  IN the spring of 1855 Charles E. Dewey, with several other parties, made the
first settlement on the South Pottowatomie above Greeley. C. E. Dewey, with his
wife and little girl of seven summers, Daniel Baer, with his wife and little
boy, three years of age, left Sandusky county, O., on the I3th day of April,
1855, for Kansas Territory. They were joined by H. H. Williams and four other
young men, at Cincinnati. They came by steamer down the Ohio river, thence up
the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Kansas City, Missouri, arriving there
April 31, 1855. Dewey with his party, consisting of ten persons, started from
Kansas City for the Pottowatomie on the first day of May, and the same day
reached Ottawa Jones', a station named for the Ottawa tribe of Indians. On the
morning of May 2, 1855, the party, leaving their women and children at Jones',
set out for the "Eldorado," across the wild and trackless prairies to the south,
for the Partridge settlement, on the Pottowatomie river. In the afternoon of the
same day they reached the Pottowatomie, a short distance above Dutch Henry
crossing, where they found Wilber D. West chopping timber on a claim he had
taken. Passing over the bluff to the south, they came to the habitation of David
Baldwin, who had squatted there in 1854; then south about one mile they found
Waltman Partridge and his family, who had settled in 1854. The Party here
stopped during the night. The next morning the party engaged George Partridge,
to guide them up the South Pottowatomie, across the open prairie, without any
road; passing by the present townsite of Greeley, where there was one or two
cabins. Still pursuing their journey, about two miles further up the stream they
passed the cabin of Charles Baecker, who had just selected a claim and built a
cabin of poles thereon. The party still traveled up the south side of the stream
until they came to what is now known as the Judy neighborhood.

  Dewey selected his claim on the land now owned by William Neal, and drove his
claim stake. H. H. Williams took the claim on the land that is now the Isaac
Hiner farm. Daniel Baer selected the claim on which P. A. Paul now lives. None
of the other parties located in Anderson county. They all returned to
Partridge's that night, and the next day returned to Jones' for their families. 

  On the 10th day of May Dewey and his party unloaded their goods in a pole
cabin, 10 feet by 14 feet, roofless and floorless, on the northwest corner of
what is now James Adams' farm, near the bank of the stream. That was the first
settlement on the South Pottowatomie above the Schutte farm.

  Dewey, Baer and Williams cleared off three or four acres of brush land and
planted it in corn, which produced a good crop. The corn was destroyed by a
prairie fire in the fall before it was gathered.

  H. H. Williams was taken sick on the 5th of July, and was unable to work until
the next winter. Baer was taken sick in August, from which he never recovered.
He died in September and was buried on the high bluff on the north side of the
Pottowatomie, just above Dutch Henry crossing. He had buried his child soon
after their arrival on the Pottowatomie. Mrs. Baer and Mrs. Dewey lay sick
during the month of September. Dewey's little girl died on the 18th of the same
month. The whole colony was sick during the fall. Dewey was the only one that
was able to attend to the affairs about the cabin. There were no other settlers
to care for or to give aid to the sick; no doctor in the country; none nearer
than Osawatomie. Dewey, having educated himself for a physician, and having been
engaged in the practice, and anticipating the necessities of a new country,
supplied himself with a small amount of such medicines as would be required,
which enabled him to administer to the sick of his family and those who came
with him; and he was often called to attend the sick further down the stream.

  In the following winter the government lands in Anderson county were surveyed,
and Dewey found his claim not a desirable one* because of the lines separating
his timber from the prairie. He jumped the claim made by one Card, a government
surveyor, and built a frame house on it, and pre-empted it in the spring of
1856, where he lived until he went into the army during the rebellion, when he
traded it to Henry Denman, who still lives upon it.

  In the summer of 1855 Patrick Tyler with his family squatted on the farm now
owned by Judge Wm. Spriggs; and John Prior, in the fall following, settled on
the claim now the farm of Emery Wilson. H. M. Rumley settled still further up
the creek in the same year. In the spring of 1856 Samuel McDaniel came to the
Pottowatomie, and bought the claim of Patrick Tyler, who went further up the
stream and located another claim.

  In the fall of 1855 and winter and spring of 1856 the government survey of the
public lands was made, under the supervision of John Calhoun, surveyor general
of the Territory of Kansas and Nebraska.

  On the first day of May, 1856, Dr. G. W. Cooper arrived at Kansas City,
Missouri. He had started a few days prior thereto from his home in Louisville,
Kentucky, to explore the southern portion of the Territory of Kansas, for the
purpose of selecting a site for a town and locating a colony thereat. At the
time Cooper arrived at Kansas City, Major Buford landed with a large body of men
from Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina, for the purpose of making Kansas a
slave State. Kansas Territory was then under the rule of the Pro-Slavery party,
and it was dangerous for a Free State man to enter the Territory, unless he had
a voucher from some of the leading Pro-Slavery men. So Cooper, to avoid trouble,
applied to General McClain, at Wyandotte, for a letter of recommendation, that
would protect him while among the Pro-Slavery men, McClain being a leading man
in that party. He gave Cooper the necessary recommendation to all good and true
men in the Territory. Cooper, thus armed, set out on his voyage. He traveled in
a southwest direction for a few days, returning through Anderson county about
the last of May, and afterwards selected and laid out a town on Ianthe creek,
and called it Kansas City, afterwards known as Ianthe. This was the first
townsite selected in the county. After selecting the townsite and platting the
same, he returned to Wyandotte, to General McClain's office. Ianthe, or Kansas
City, was a paper town, located on the west half of section 27 and east half of
section 28, township 19, range 18, and was afterwards pre-empted by John Murphy,
John L. Clemens, Stephen B. Shotwell and Alexander Casseday. The three latter
were from Louisville, Ky., and the former from Virginia. John Murphy made a
claim on Ianthe creek on 160 acres of land, and made some improvements, and
moved on the same. The entire tract of land claimed as the townsite of Ianthe or
Kansas City, except the claim of John Murphy, was pre-empted by one movable
log-cabin, which was moved from one quarter to another until the several claims
were preempted. The cabin and proprietors have long since "gone where the
woodbine twineth."

  Cooper, at Wyandotte, met George A. Dunn, who had surveyed most of the lands
in Anderson county, and was recently from that region of country. When Cooper
made known to Dunn his mission to Kansas, he proposed to go with him to the
Pottowatomie, in Anderson county, and select a townsite near the center of the
county, for a county seat, and, after agreeing upon a plan and the share each
was to have, they together set out for the Pottowatomie country, and arrived in
this county some time in the summer or fall thereafter. They went to the
geographical center of the county and examined the surrounding country, but
failing to find a desirable site for a town, Dunn suggested that there was a
beautiful site about six miles from the center, on section 30, township 20,
range 20, with a fine spring of water. So they came down the Pottowatomie to
Samuel McDaniel's, near the present site of Garnett, stopped a few days with
him, examined the proposed townsite, and laid out a town on section 30, township
20, range 20, and returned to Wyandotte; and Cooper, in a few days, returned to
Louisville, and afterwards organized a town company consisting of W. A. Garnett,
R. B. Hall, G. W. Cooper, Geo. A. Dunn and Theodore Harris. The company, so
organized, proceeded to the election of officers, as follows: W. A. Garnett,
president; R. B. Hall, vice president; and Theo. Harris, secretary. The town was
then named Garnett, in honor of W. A. Garnett, a man of wealth and influence in
Louisville, Ky. The company at once made arrangements for sending a colony from
Louisville to- the new town, and purchased the necessary machinery for a
first-class flouring and saw mill; but not being able to send the colony that
summer, the mill was not sent until the summer of 1857.

  In March, 1857, Cooper again came to Kansas, and on the 10th of May he had the
townsite again surveyed, staked out and platted, and then returned to Louisville
for the colony, mill and machinery. On his arrival at Louisville he had a
lithographed plat of the town made; and the town company then elected new
officers, as follows: R. B. Hall, president; Geo. A. Dunn, vice president; and
Theo. Harris, secretary.

  When Cooper was in Garnett in the spring of 1857 he employed men and had a
double log house built, on Fourth avenue, east of Main street, in which Dr.
Preston Bowen opened a store in the summer of the same year, which was the first
store in the town. During the spring and summer of 1857 several emigrants
settled in Garnett, before the Louisville colony arrived, among whom were Dr.
Thos. Lindsay, John G. Lindsay, Wm. Smith, W. S. Smith and Thos. Owen.

  Cooper and Hall, about the middle of July, with a portion of the colony,
started for Kansas, and arrived in Anderson county about the 25th of the same
month.

  On the first day of August Robert B. Hall, as president; Geo. A. Dunn, G. W.
Cooper and Theodore Harris, as associates, filed a plat of the town of Garnett
in the office of the probate court of the county, with a petition setting forth
that the town of Garnett was regularly laid out and surveyed on or about the
10th day of May, A. D. 1857, covering the south half of section 30, township 20,
range 20. About this time a store house was built and occupied by a merchant,
and the company on this improvement claimed the right under act of Congress to
pre-empt the above described lands for a townsite; and on the 8th day of
September, 1857, the same was pre-empted by George Wilson, probate judge of
Anderson county, in trust for the occupants of the town of Garnett.

  August 7, 1857, William C. Hall, Isaac N. Locke and Joseph Barclay, associates
of the town of Troy, presented for filing in the office of the probate court
their petition and plat, showing the survey of the town of Troy, and claiming
the north half of section 30, township 20, range 20, as a townsite, under the
pre-emption act of Congress, which petition was granted, and a record made of
the same; and on the 8th day of September, 1857, the land above described was
pre-empted by Geo. Wilson, probate judge, for the use and benefit of the
occupants of the town of Troy.

  In August, 1857, the Louisville colony arrived on the townsite of Garnett,
with the machinery for a flouring and saw mill, and at once commenced the work
of getting up the mill, and preparing to build themselves dwellings. The
following persons composed the colony: Charles Hidden and family, F. G. Bruns
and family, W. C. Hall, R. B. Hall, Theodore Harris, G. W. Cooper and family,
Mrs. Adeline Duren and family, John Lambdin and family, and M. T. Williams and
family.

  There are but four persons of the Louisville colony now living in this county;
these are F. G. Bruns and wife, and G. W. Cooper and Mary L. Cooper. F. G. Bruns
was a young man; had not been married but a few months before coming to Kansas.
He arrived here on the 10th of August; his wife came soon after—as soon as he
could prepare a house for her accommodation. He built the first frame house in
Garnett, where he still resides. He was an active, energetic young man; was of
valuable service to the town and county; has held several, prominent positions
in the town since. On the i3th day of March, 1858, was born unto him two
children, named, respectively, Charles Garnett Bruns and Mary Brans. These were
the first births in the town. Charles Garnett Bruns is now 18 years old; a boy
of excellent habits, and respected by all. Mary Bruns died at the age of nine
weeks, and hers was the first death in Garnett. Bruns has built several
buildings in the town, opened the first cabinet shop, and by industry and rigid
economy has from time to time added to his business until he now, in connection
with O. Fabricius, is carrying on one of the most extensive furniture factories
and stores in this part of the State.

  In the month of December, 1857, the town companies of Garnett and Troy were
consolidated, under the name and style of the "Town Company of Garnett."

  On the 9th day of February, 1859, the Territorial Legislature passed an act to
incorporate the town company of Garnett, with the following incorporators: R. B.
Hall, Theodore Harris, J. Y. Campbell, James Locke, D. W. Houston and W. C.
Hall, with the usual powers of bodies corporate. The company so incorporated met
at Garnett on the 9th day of April, 1859, an^ elected its officers as follows:
R. B. Hall, president, and Theodore Harris, secretary. The town so organized
issued to its members certificates of stock in the following form:

  "Town of Garnett, Kansas Territory.
  "This is to certify that ____ is entitled to one share, No.___, in the town of
Garnett, K. T., transferable personally or by attorney, upon the books of the
company, upon the surrender of this certificate. It is agreed between the
stockholders and original pre-emptors of Garnett, that this certificate does not
entitle the holder to any interest in the grounds and lots that have been set
apart for public purposes, built on, sold or given away previous to December, 1857.

  "In witness whereof the said company have caused their president and secretary
to affix their names, this ___ day of_____, 185—.
                               R. B, HALL, President.
  " THEODORE HARRIS, Secretary."

  At the head of this certificate is the motto of the State of Kentucky.

  Several houses were erected on the townsite of Garnett in 1857. The flouring
and saw mill was put in operation during the fall of that year.

  In 1858 and 1859 a number of prominent settlers located in Garnett, among whom
were D. W. Houston, Hiram Tefft, Rev. J. R. Slentz, C. P. Alvey, Dr. G. W.
Walgamott, S. J. Crawford, W. A. Johnson, G. W. Iler, J. G. Smith, J. C.
Johnson, Hugh Quinn, Gifford McAfee, James McLaughlin, Jared Graham, William
McLaughlin, Robert McLaughlin, Martin Setter, John B. Stitt, J. T. Purcell,
Elias Norris, Ephraim Coy, Charles Norris, John Johnson, N. A. Porter, Wm.
Tefft, John Tefft, John S. Stowe and others.

  Dr. Cooper selected and laid out the town of Valley City, near the junction of
the Pottowatomies, in the spring of 1857. Drs. Cooper and Lindsay surveyed and
staked it out, and Cooper had a lithographed plat of it made; but there were
never any town improvements made on the town-site. It had, like many of the
Kansas towns of that day, existence only on paper. Townsites became so numerous
in the early days of the country that it became necessary for the Legislature to
prevent the location of so many townsites, and in 1859 it had a bill before it,
providing that each alternate section should be reserved for agricultural
purposes, and making it unlawful for more than half of the land to be occupied
for town and city purposes.




Additional Comments:
THE HISTORY OF ANDERSON COUNTY,
FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT TO THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1876.
BY
W. A. JOHNSON,
CHAIRMAN OF HISTORICAL COMMITTEE.

PUBLISHED BY KAUFFMAN & ILER, GARNETT PLAINDEALER,
1877.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1877, by
KAUFFMAN & ILER, In the office of the Librarian of Congress,Washington, D. C.


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