Gove County KS Archives History - Books .....The State Aid 1930 ************************************************ 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 22, 2005, 6:12 pm Book Title: History Of Gove County, Kansas CHAPTER IX THE STATE AID The year 1878 was one of good crops in western Kansas. Yields of thirty bushels of wheat and seventy five of corn per acre were reported, and these stories had much to do with the flood of immigration which set in for the west in the following year. But the fat year of 1878 was followed by a series of lean ones; and the successive crop failures fell very hard on the new settlers in the western counties. The pioneers were industrious, energetic and full of hope for the future. Every man felt himself an independent land owner when he had put his homestead papers on a quarter section of land on the boundless plains of Sunny Kansas. But few of them had any money or anything; else to fall back on and were from the start dependent on their labor and their crops for the support of themselves and their families; so when the crop failed in 1S7& the settlers were confronted with the problem of what to do to keep themselves and their families through the winter. All sorts of makeshifts were resorted to. A few found work on the railroad; some went west and some east to work at anything they could find to do. This disruption of families fell hardest, of course, on the women and children who had to stay in the lonely sod house or dugout home on the claim while the father was away at work. Those who stayed gathered up the bleached and scattered bones of the buffalo and hauled them to the railroad where they found sale at four to six dollars a ton. Loads of bones were hauled to the U. P. station from as far away as Rawlins county, a distance of sixty miles. By these and other makeshifts many of the pioneers weathered the storm. But as winter came on it became evident that many would be unable to get along without outside help; and so the call for aid went forth. The call met a ready answer. Americans are generous people and never fail to respond to a call for aid, whether it be from flood sufferers in the Ohio valley, earthquake sufferers in California or the victims of drouth on the plains—or victims of famine in India, Russia or Belgium. Gove was not the only county afflicted by the drouth—the blight had struck all the western counties. The first mention I can find of aid in Gove county is this from the Grainfield Republican, Jan. 29, 1880: "It is reported that Rev. J. Q. A. Weller who was chosen to see about aid for Gove and Sheridan counties wrote Gov. St. John that $1600 was needed, of which Sheridan needed three times as much as Gove." The largest single contributor to the aid fund for western Kansas was Jay Gould, then in control of the Union Pacific. In response to an appeal from the governor he contributed $5000, specifying that it should be expended "in the counties of Trego, Gove, Wallace, Sheridan, Graham and the northern part of Ness," along the line of his railroad; the railroad also offered to haul all donations free of charge. The governor appointed R. S. Coldren of Topeka to handle the Gould contribution; Mr. Coldren made several trips to Gove and other counties, with provisions. Gov. St. John made a personal visit to the western counties in May, 1880, to investigate conditions. On his return to Topeka he invited a number of prominent citizens to a meeting in his office; at this meeting, May 25, a State Aid association was formed for the relief of settlers in western Kansas. Most of the aid received during the year 1880 was handled through this committee. The secretary of the committee reported that 1600 people in western Kansas, were destitute. His list was prepared by counties and showed 400 destitute in Gove, 1000 in Sheridan, 1000 in Graham, 1600 in Ness, etc. Gove's number was smaller than any other county except Wallace, which reported 200. On July 3, 1880, at a meeting in Buffalo Park Rev. J. Q. A. Weller was appointed to visit the east and solicit aid. Rev. Weller was very active in the aid matter. The Grainfield paper was very spiteful at Mr. Weller, charging him with sensationalism and with grossly exaggerating the amount of destitution existing, and even insinuated that he was a grafter. A meeting at Grainfield in January, 1880, adopted a resolution that there were only twenty eight destitute families in the county at that time and that there were enough provisions on hand for these at Buffalo Park. Grainfield gave but little encouragement to the aid proposition and continually threw cold water on it. It must be remembered that the organization movement was under way at this time and a county seat fight was brewing, and perhaps it was natural that Grainfield should be suspicious of any movement coming from Buffalo Park, and vice versa. The legislature of 1881 appropriated $25,000 for the relief of western Kansas and I. N. Holloway was appointed commissioner to administer the fund. He made his report June 30, 1881. He said the destitution was not so great as reported but that he found many persons greatly in need of help. He estimated that ninety five per cent of the suffering was due to the drouth of 1879-80 und the other five per cent to various causes such as sickness, loss of teams and the destruction of growing crops by roving droves of unherded cattle. He bought 750,000 pounds of supplies, which were transported free by the railroads. The total cost of supplies was $14,817.05, leaving a balance of over ten thousand dollars of the appropriation to turn back into the treasury. A vast amount of distress was caused by the drouth of 1879-80 in the way of personal suffering, loss of crops and the abandonment of homes. What was the total amount of aid rendered can never be known but it was small compared to the total loss; and it has long since been made good by contributions from western Kansas to the unfortunates of other localities. It is probably no exaggeration to say that western Kansas contributed more to the flood sufferers of the Kaw valley at the time of the flood of 1903 than all eastern Kansas contributed to the west in the time of the Great Drouth. Additional Comments: History of Gove County, Kansas by W. P. Harrington Gove City, Kan. 1930 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/gove/history/1930/historyo/stateaid11ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/ File size: 6.7 Kb