Gove County KS Archives History - Books .....The Ups And Downs Of A Frontier County 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 24, 2005, 1:03 am Book Title: History Of Gove County, Kansas, Part II CHAPTER I THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A FRONTIER COUNTY If the historian were asked to tell in a single sentence the history of Gove county, he would say that it is a tale of ups and downs. It is a record of progress and improvement, but this progress instead of being regularly and orderly has been subject to some rather violent fluctuations. In a previous chapter of this history, the story was related of the first settlement of the county in 1878-80 and the subsequent desolation and ruin of that settlement by drouth. Since that time our history has been an irregular alteration of good times and bad, of gains and losses in population, production and wealth, and these changes have tallied roughly with the annual fluctuations in rainfall. Let me invite the reader's attention to the table given below. These figures, which are taken from the reports of the State Board of Agriculture and the United States Weather Bureau, are perhaps not as dry as they seem; they date back to about the time of the organization of the county, and a study of them will tell, better than words, the nature of the progress or retrogression our county has made since that date. From the table a very fair chronicle can be made. Using the table as a guide, a history of the county, year by year, could be constructed, about as follows : 1886—The newly organized county started off with a population of 3,032; most of the settlers were poor, living on homesteads and having little property to assess; the cattle in the county were worth far more than the crops produced. The Union Pacific railroad was by far the largest taxpayer. 1887—Population increased more than a third; production tripled; value of live stock doubled; the country was booming. 1888—Population still on the increase, live stock increasing, the assessed valuation of the county has nearly tripled in two years, but the farms produced less than last year; not so good. 1889—This year the rainfall record begins. There is a six-fold increase in wheat production, but the value of farm products is only doubled. Corn crop is poor. Probably also a year of poor prices. Fourteen inches of rain is not enough to make a farming country. The settlers sell some of their cattle, and the population falls off seven hundred. 1890—Only ten inches of rain. Crop production smallest ever known. Six hundred leave the county. Valuation decreased fifteen per cent in two years. 1891—Population still fast decreasing, but those who remained have a pretty good crop. Twice as much rain this year as last. 1892—Another year of good rains and a good crop. The exodus from the county has slowed down. 1893—The county begins to gain in population once more, but it is another dry year and crops are poor. 1894—Driest year since 1890. All the discourageable ones leave; only the stayers remain; population reaches the irreducible minimum. The rainfall was heavy in June, too late to save the wheat, nearly half the year's supply of rain coming in that month, but October had no rain at all, and six other months had less than an inch of rain each. 1895 and 1896—Twenty three inches of rain each year. The survivors are producing something from their farms, but cattle have decreased in number and are worth less than half what they were worth eight years before. These are years of low prices, following the financial panic of 1893. 1897—Look who's here. Gove county had the biggest rainfall in its history, and its first big wheat crop. Now for the first time the produce of the fields was worth more than the live stock. 1898—The country shows signs of recovery. Cattle nearly double in numbers and value since last year. It is becoming a cattleman's country. 1899 and following—On the upgrade, in population, crop production, live stock and everything. These are years of good rainfall. In 1900 the combined value of farm products and live stock approaches the million dollar mark. In 1901 they go over it, to stay there permanently. Popula- Wheat Value of Value of Assessed Rainfall Year tion bu. farm products live stock valuation in inches 1886 3,032 312 $51,206 $175,432 $585,148 1887 4,113 640 147,696 342,915 1888 4,363 4,764 106,857 439,478 1,335,199 1889 3,637 24,615 199,133 354,365 34.30 1890 3,068 7,467 48,910 361,266 1,130,173 10.91 1891 2,370 112,518 232,380 316,599 20.56 1892 2,215 234,724 301,084 317,606 1,071,785 25.05 1893 2,409 3,822 76,722 280,659 15.38 1894 2,388 4,528 76,228 338,859 1,129,886 12.50 1895 2,032 72,216 120,338 210,158 23.34 1896 2,043 89,556 114,864 205,549 1,192,925 2353 1897 2,145 254,016 293,352 270,989 28.83 1898 2,093 154,119 193,714 468,392 1,248,239 24.53 1899 2,224 255,108 151,063 540,774 19.51 1900 2,563 244,416 302,828 667,347 1,267,581 17.20 1901 2,587 192,066 312,634 715,849 19.06 1902 2,816 178,650 335,423 800,627 1,377,214 26.62 1903 2,870 752,518 782,757 798,566 17.25 1904 3,207 132,548 348,996 738,833 1,388,839 18.10 1905 3,353 518,574 807,199 830,597 27.59 1906 4,081 452,410 654,404 898,596 1,602,551 21.22 1907 4,699 470,215 846,377 962,168 19.80 1908 4,887 687,942 1,149,888 972,219 8,484,475 21.91 1909 5,169 775,760 1,806,860 1,107,638 28.11 1910 5,599 428,344 1,194,476 1,120,029 10,373,486 7.97 1911 5,640 655,519 1,329,165 11.77 1912 4,516 72,528 1,266,335 1,010,128 8,974,191 1913 4,291 3,772 176,442 1,069,705 1914 3,771 1,142,100 1,541,160 1,064,696 8,275,830 1915 4,010 1,218,736 1,998,252 1,479,696 1916 4,537 1,544,496 2,842,993 1,867,052 9,395,397 1917 4,872 47,061 960,853 2,002,607 10.90 1918 4,645 11,670 1,874,758 2,063,088 10,277,865 20.90 1919 4,973 878,877 4,101,810 2,195,703 19.95 1920 5,009 2,763,516 6,877,238 2,200,720 11,566,144 17.88 1921 5,109 978,736 1,688,872 1,445,305 20.84 1922 5,209 982,685 2,079,551 1,402,772 11,040,570 14.61 1923 5,037 106,764 2,623,803 1,267,144 28.72 1924 5,333 1,904,714 3,510,021 1,144,505 11,477,253 16.85 1925 5,464 630,165 1,846,171 1,269,713 14.07 1926 5,203 899,994 1,576,578 1,044,442 12,685,724 12.21 1927 5,464 103,370 1,488,257 1,263,656 21.11 1928 5,481 1,353,888 3,261,770 1,688,031 12,755,667 27.39 1903 was a phenomenal wheat year. This year's crop deserves special mention, which will be given it later in another chapter. The population of the county doubled between 1896 and 1906, and the value of live stock increased four and one-half times. In 1908 the value of farm products passed the million mark. It has been above that mark every year since, except three. The live stock valuation crossed the mark in 1909. In 1910 the U. S. Census takers enumerated 6,044 people in Gove county, while the local assessors reported only 5,599. This is our high water mark for population. It will be noted that the assessed valuation was more than five times as great in 1908 as in 1906. This is due to a change in methods of assessment. Property was formerly assessed at about one-fifth of its value all over the state; since the adoption of the present system in 1908 all property is supposed to be assessed at its actual value. Gove county had now been prospering for so many years that it seemed to have become a habit. The calamitous days and the busted boom of the early Nineties were forgotten; indeed about two thirds of the population had come into the county since those disastrous days and knew nothing of them. Land had acquired a value, the homestead lands and school lands were taken up, and the Union Pacific disposed of the last remnants of the land grant it had received in the Sixties and had been holding all these years till it could find purchasers. Settlers were acquiring more cattle and better horses and moving out of the old sod houses into substantial frame dwellings, and furnishing the same with pianos and steel ranges and telephones and that popular new invention, the automobile. Perhaps ours was the pride which goeth before destruction, and perhaps we needed some punishment to teach us humility. And the punishment was now at hand. Note, on the table given above, the rainfall of 1910 and 1911. For the first time in its history Gove county had a total failure of its wheat crop, and nearly everything else. In 1912 there was a small yield of wheat, and other crops were good, but this was the year of the "horse disease" which swept away the farmers' work animals. The next year, 1913, was another total failure. In these years nearly two thousand people left the county and the taxable valuation of the county fell off more than two million dollars. This, in a few words, is the history of three disastrous years. But, once more, it was demonstrated that the man who can hold on is the winner. The rains came again, and the Desert of 1913 produced more than a million bushels of wheat in 1914; more than that, we had another wheat crop in 1915, and again in 1916. For three successive years Gove county was in the million bushel class. We gain back some of our lost population. We have no record of the rainfall in these years —the local weather man had quit the job. Then came the World War. Farmers did not profit greatly by wartime prices, for the yield was light (note that ten inch rainfall in 1917), but the stockman made money; live stock values went over the two million mark, to stay there for four years. 1919 was a good year. Nineteen Twenty was the most glorious year in the history of the county. The wheat crop was worth five million dollars. The yield was the largest ever known, and most of it was marketed before the break in prices. This was the year when, the great United States government put into operation its policy of deflating the farmer. This was a year of land speculation, and land sold at unheard-of prices. Late in the year prices broke sharply, and those who had held their wheat or speculated suffered severely. Recent years have been only moderately prosperous. The live stock industry was hard hit by the postwar deflation and is just beginning to recover. Those who are in debt have been having something of a struggle to keep going. Farmers have not made money as they did in 1914-16 and in 1920, but they have not suffered such losses as in 1911-13. Population has grown a little each year for fifteen years and is now almost up to the figure attained in 1910. The taxable wealth is the highest in history, nearly thirty per cent greater than in 1910. Those who have been through hard times in Gove county realize that our present situation is not nearly as bad as it might be. And in this year of 1929 a new element has entered the calculation, the value of which cannot yet be determined. The present activity of Oil men, leasers, geologists and core-drillers, points to the possibility that we may have an oil field which may soon be adding its product to the wealth now turned out by our pastures and our farms. 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/upsanddo32ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/ File size: 12.6 Kb