Barton County KS Archives History - Books .....When Water Was Hard To Get 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 24, 2005, 3:43 pm

Book Title: Biographical History Of Barton County

WHEN WATER WAS HARD TO GET

W. W. SOWARDS tells of early days in Union township when water was a most
valuable possession. Mr. Sowards in telling the story said:

   "I located a soldier claim in what is now Union township in September, 1877.
There were but four settlers there at that time. There were tree claims taken in
most of the sections and in July, 1878 the township was organized out of
territory taken from Homestead township. There were fifty-eight voters at that
time, a large majority of whom were ex-soldiers. This fact was the cause of name
'Union' being selected. All the settlers except three or four were natives of
America and came from Iowa and Illinois. The township is located on what is
known as the Smoky River Divide. The lack of water in this was its greatest
drawback. Shallow wells could not be gotten only in the creek beds, at other
places one would have to go several hundred feet into the ground and as a result
of this it was necessary to haul water in wagons.

   'On one occasion Fred Prindle had four barrels of water slide out of his
wagon when going up a small hill and the thermometer was twenty below zero thus
making the conditions anything but favorable for prayer. Another time when the
value of water was brought forcibly to the notice of another settler, a man by
the name of Williams, when he spilled three barrels of water when his wagon
upset, after bringing the liquid five miles with oxen. Another time Jay Verbeck
fell into a well while bailing water for cattle. The mercury stood at zero when
this occurred. Very few of the old settlers who suffered these hardships are now
living in the township, most of them having gone to places where there is more
water. Those were great days in the history of Barton County."


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/barton/history/1912/biograph/whenwate45ms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/

File size: 2.4 Kb