Barton County KS Archives History - Books .....Sketch Of Pioneer Life 1912 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com July 23, 2005, 1:04 am Book Title: Biographical History Of Barton County SKETCH OF PIONEER LIFE By Ed. W. Dewey ABOUT the 7th of July, 1871, I came into Barton county from the town of Russell, Russell County, Kansas. At that time the population of Barton County consisted of but few inhabitants, and they were scattered along the banks of Walnut Creek. There was no settlement on Blood Creek at that time. One of the first settlers in Great Bend township was Mr. John Cook who, in June, 1871, built a dugout on the bank of the creek, about .three miles, from the present site of Great Bend. There was no stone or frame house in the county at that time. Mr. A. C. Moses and Mr. J. H. Hubbard were preparing to build frame houses. Mr. A. C. Moses had a few boards put up like a tent, and Mr. Hubbard was hauling stone for a foundation. They had located about two miles below Mr. Cook, on the creek. The country was overrun with buffalo, which kept us awake at night with their continual bellowing and stamping. I settled on a piece of land en the creek—the southwest -quarter of section 4, township 19, range 13—and took cut my papers about the 15th of July, 1871. The section on which Great Bend now stands was then vacant. There was no reliable survey of that township, as there were no corners marked within the township by the government surveyors. At this time there was a surveyor by the name of H. Meriton, camped at the old fort, and laying out a town site near where old Fort Zarah used to stand, with whom I had worked during the fore part of the summer, and so I helped him lay out the townsite of Zarah—as it was called—and we also ran several lines for different parties, mine among the rest. That, I think, was the first survey in the county, after the government survey. At that time there were no section corners marked in any way within township 19, range 13 west. About the last of August there was a government surveying party at work sectionizing the land lying south of the river. At that time the river was nearly dry—no water running above the mouth of the Walnut. The land south of the Arkansas was not then considered good for anything by the settlers. Early in September a party of Pawnee Indians, numbering about 400, all on foot, passed through the settlement, going south to trade for ponies with the southern Indians. They were all armed, and occasioned considerable alarm among us; but they were peaceable, and committed no depredations. They returned late in October, having plenty of ponies and but few arms. Two or three of them were sick, and annoyed the settlers a good deal by begging, etc. One of them died on Blood creek. We had to send or go to Salina, on the K. P. R. R., to transact all our land business. The railroad land had not yet come into market. There was not much land broken that summer, and the only crop raised was a small piece of sod corn, about five miles up the creek from my place, which did very well. No wheat of any importance was sowed that fall. The town site of Great Bend was surveyed out, and a large house (now the Southern Hotel) was built, the lumber being hauled from Ellsworth, on the K. P. R. R., a distance of 50 miles. A few other houses were built during the fall. Winter coming on, I made a dugout on the banks of the Walnut, on my land, and my family came about the 16th of November. The next day it began to rain and sleet, finally turning to snow. Our things had not yet arrived, and we were compelled to sleep on some old hay in one corner of the dugout. The rain and snow beat in at the door. It became terribly cold before morning, and we came near freezing to death. The creek froze nearly solid. PURSUED BY WOLVES. As the winter progressed the wolves and coyotes became very savage, and it was dangerous for a person to be out on the prairie after dark. Sometime in December I had an adventure with wolves, which I will relate to illustrate the terrible ferocity of the wolves at that time: One evening as myself, wife and babe were returning from Mr. E. J. Dodge's (whose family had recently arrived, and where we had been on a visit). I had on a pair of skates, and my wife and babe were on a rude sled, which I had constructed, and was pushing it before me on the ice on the creek. When we had proceeded about one-half the way, we heard the wolves howl on the banks of the creek right ahead of us; and pretty soon their gaunt forms were outlined against the sky. It looked like certain death to go ahead, and almost as certain to turn back, so I pushed ahead and the wolves ran along on the banks beside us until we were nearly home. Then, as if they were afraid that we would get away, they became bolder, and finally, as we turned a bend of the creek, there on the bank, not 10 feet off, stood about half a dozen hungry, howling wolves. As we swung around the bend, two big grays made a leap for the sled, but we were going so fast that they fell short of their intended prey, and as they tried to stop themselves their nails scratched on the ice right beside me, and I felt their hot breath in my face. Immediately I heard them coming behind, and now it was a race for life. I skated as I never skated before or since, and in a few minutes we arrived at the dugout We ran in, and grabbing my gun I shot two dead within a few feet of the door. I shot at several more, and soon they disappeared. The winter of 1871, was one of the coldest that I have experienced in this country. A man by the name of Jamison had about 4,000 head of Texas cattle in the bottoms, by the creek, and, as the river and creek were both frozen nearly solid, the settlers had to cut holes in the ice for the cattle to drink from. The cattle suffered terribly with thirst, and became very ferocious. They would often attack a person unless he was on horseback. Several people were attacked by them, and the settlers killed some to protect their lives, and for meat, as the cow-boys had run all of the buffalo out of the valley for several miles. Considerable trouble grew out of this, but no lives were lost. The settlers lived on corn bread, molasses, and meat, and sometimes a little flour. Every-and meat, and sometimes a little flour. Everything we obtained had to be hauled from the K. P. R. R., and that made prices very high. Flour was $8.00 per cwt, and molasses $1.50 per gallon; bacon, 20 cents per pound; corn meal, $5.00 per hundred weight, and everything else in proportion. There was some little talk of a railroad coming up the Valley, but the prevailing opinion seemed to be that it would cross the Arkansas at some point east and go down through the Medicine Ledge country. Many settlers came in during that fall, and several houses were built. The spring opened very fine, and the prairie schoonrs carrying sttlers came in very fast, and the talk of a railroad in the near future assumed more definite shape. Considerable land was broken and planted to corn, etc., and the desert, which has since delevoped into a full blown rose, began to bud. Breaking was worth $4.50 to $5.00 per acre. The town of Great Bend commenced to build up, and things, were lively. Hauling from the K. P. R. R. made work for those who had teams and some for those who had none. The railroad reached Barton County some time in the month of June, 1872, and thus opened up communication with the east. There were several houses, built on the town site of Zarah during the fall of 1871 and spring of 1872. There was a big dance in Buckbee's store at Zarah on Christmas eve, 1871, and a merry time enjoyed by all. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/barton/history/1912/biograph/sketchof23ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/ File size: 8.1 Kb