Johnson County KS Archives History - Books .....Chapter III The Santa Fe Trail 1915
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Book Title: History Of Johnson County Kansas

CHAPTER III.
THE SANTA FE TRAIL.

Its course—When First Traveled—Established By The Government-Santa Fe Trail 
Markers—Dedication of Monument at Olathe—Santa Fe Marker at Lone Elm—Pioneers' 
Experiences on the Old Trail— "The Santa Fe Trail"—Recollections of 
a "Bullwhacker."

SANTA FE TRAIL—ITS COURSE.

  The old Santa Fe Trail is one of the cherished historic landmarks of Johnson 
county, and in recent years increased interest has been manifest in this great 
highway of the plains in the early days. In the early history of the Santa Fe 
Trail, the outfitting point was at Old Franklin, Mo., but a large part of that 
town was undermined by the river and the outfitting business was transferred 
to Independence. Mo. In 1856 the landing at Independence was obstructed by a 
sand bar. Westport then came into prominence as an outfitting point and 
became, as it were, the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. The trail from 
Old Franklin entered Johnson county at the old town of Santa Fe in Oxford 
township, Johnson county, and followed a westward course about four miles 
south of Olathe, following the ridge. The trail from Westport ran in a 
southwesterly direction through Olathe and joined the trail from Franklin 
southwest of Olathe. Another road from Fort Leavenworth united with the main 
trail further west at a point in the southwestern part of Wabunsee county, 
where Wilmington is now located. It continued a southwesterly direction from 
Council Grove through the present counties of Morris, Marion, McPherson, Rice 
and Barton, striking the Arkansas river near the present city of Great Bend. 
From this point it followed the north bank of the Arkansas river to what is 
now the town of Cimmaron, Gray county, where it divided, one branch continuing 
up the Arkansas river to the Colorado line and the other running in a 
southwesterly direction through Gray, Haskell, Grant, Stevens and Morton 
counties, crossing the western boundary of Kansas near the southwest corner of 
the State and on to Santa Fe, N. M.

  Prentis, in his history of Kansas says: "It was a great road, 775 miles 
long, 550 miles of which were in Kansas, a hard smooth thoroughfare, from 60 
to 100 feet wide. It had not a bridge in its whole extent, and was the best 
natural road of its length ever known in the world. In token that it had come 
to stay, the broadfaced, yellow sunflower, since chosen by the Kansas people 
as an emblem of their State, sprang up on either side where the wheels had 
broken the soil along the highway."

WHEN FIRST TRAVELED.

  There is much conflicting data as to the early history of the Santa Fe 
Trail. Some writers even attempt to set the claim that the famous old route 
had a prehistoric existence and that it was followed by the Coronado 
expedition in 1540. It is known that the Mallett Brothers reached Santa Fe, N. 
M., from the East in July, 1739, but there is no evidence of what route they 
took to reach their destination. Some of the early hunters and trappers in the 
employ of the Choteaus, followed this trail about, or prior to, the year 1800. 
James Pursley, a hunter, made the trip from Missouri to New Mexico, in 1802, 
but probably the first white man to follow approximately the route which later 
became the Santa Fe Trail was Baptiste La Lande, who went from Kaskaskia, 
Ill., in 1804. Soon after the beginning of the last century a few adventurous 
traders began to make expeditions to New Mexico over the course of the Santa 
Fe Trail. The first trip was made with pack mules, but the large profits in 
this trade soon encouraged heavier operations. As the trade became heavier, a 
movement was started to have the United States Government establish a highway 
from some point in Missouri to New Mexico. A bill to that effect was 
introduced in Congress and championed by Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, and 
other Western members. President Monroe approved the measure, March 3, 
1825, "to cause a road to be marked out from the western frontier of Missouri 
to New Mexico" and from this followed the official establishment of the Santa 
Fe Trail. Three commissioners were appointed to carry out the provisions of 
this act. They were Benjamin H. Reeves, Thomas Mather and George C. Sibley. 
They left St. Louis in June, 1825, with seven wagons and about thirty men, and 
their report states that on August 10, 1825, they "met the chiefs and head men 
of the Great and Little Osage Nations at a place called the Council Grove, on 
the river Neozo, 160 miles from Fort Osage, and here, after due deliberation 
and consultation, agreed to the following treaty, which is to be considered 
binding on the said Great and Little Osages from and after this day," The 
treaty provides that, in consideration of the sum of $500, to be paid to the 
chiefs and head men of the Osages in money or goods at their option, they give 
the United States the privilege of surveying or making the road through their 
territory. They further agreed to commit no hostile act against persons 
traveling along the road, and to permit them to go a reasonable distance on 
either side thereof to find suitable camping places and subsistence for their 
animals. In 1826, wagons had completely supplanted pack animals, and the trade 
of that year amounted to $90,000. A steady increase followed until 1843, when 
the trade aggregated $450,000. Organized bands of guerrillas began to prey on 
the trading parties along the trail. The leading band, under Snively, was 
disarmed and dispersed by a detachment of 200 United States dragoons under 
Captain Coake, who was assigned to guard wagon trains over the trail. In 
August, 1843, the Mexican Government, by proclamation of its President, Santa 
Ana, closed all Mexican ports of entry. However, they were re-opened March 31, 
1844. The next interruption of trade was caused by the Mexican war, but in 
1850, after the close of that conflict, it was again resumed and continued 
until the railroads put the overland freighter out of business in 1872.

SANTA FE TRAIL MARKERS.

  Soon after the beginning of the present century, the Daughters of the 
Revolution, in Kansas, began to agitate the subject of marking the line of the 
Santa Fe Trail through the State. By the act of March 1, 1905, the Kansas 
legislature appropriated $1,000, "for the purpose of procuring suitable 
monuments to mark the Santa Fe Trail through the following counties," etc. The 
act also designates that the work should be done under the supervision of the 
regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution of the State and the 
secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society. The marking was done in 1906 
and 1907. There are ninety-five markers along the trail in Kansas, six of 
which were paid for by funds raised otherwise than the prescribed method. 
There are five monuments along the old trail in Johnson county, the most 
elaborate of which is located on the southeast corner of the public square in 
Olathe.

DEDICATION OF MONUMENT AT OLATHE.

  This beautiful granite monument, a cut of which appears in this volume, was 
erected by Johnson county, the old settlers and other contributors. It was 
dedicated on Old Settlers' Day, September 7, 1907, which was also the semi-
centennial anniversary of the opening of the county offices of Johnson county 
at Gum Springs, the then county seat. The following address was delivered on 
that occasion by Grace R. Meeker, Kansas secretary of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution: "It gives me great pleasure to represent the Kansas 
Daughters of the American Revolution at this celebration of the semi-
centennial of Olathe (the beautiful). One of the reasons for the being of our 
society is the marking of historic places, the preservation of old land marks.

  "Now, when this territory was a part of Virginia, no colonies were planted; 
Capt. John Smith did not penetrate so far into the wilderness to be saved by a 
Kansas Indian maiden. Later times brought no Revolutionary battlefields to 
commemorate. Yet our State has a history quite as wonderful as any of the 
thirteen colonies, historic stories just as thrilling. Very many of these 
stories cluster about the old 'Santa Fe Trail' As an old pioneer puts it. 'All 
the life there was in Kansas in the '20's and '30's moved along the Old Trail.'

  "So the Daughters of the American Revolution found their historic places, 
stretching the whole length of the State. Like so many other things in Kansas 
it is a big thing. Women, however, are never daunted by a small number—we had 
fewer than 300 members when we begun this enterprise, nor entire lack of 
funds. Our State Regent, Mrs. Stanley, was enthusiastic in her advocacy of the 
undertaking; the wife of the Vice-President of the United States, then our 
national president-general, visiting our State conference in Topeka, cheered 
us on with her hearty, 'I hope you'll mark your old Santa Fe Trail.'. We have 
the friendly co-operation of the State Historical Society, the pioneers 
everywhere and the State of Kansas through its legislature.

  "The beginning thing to do was to find exactly where ran the great highway 
we were to mark. Very vague ideas existed as to the path the pioneers traveled 
to 'catch up with the sky line,' any old road leading west, was likely to be 
called the Santa Fe Trail. The State Historical Society, with the help of Hon. 
Victor Murdock, was able to find, and have copied the Government map, together 
with the field notes of the Government survey. This we were kindly allowed to 
have copied and applied to a map showing the present county divisions.

  "Along that great pathway, beside which Olathe sits, there are monuments 
now, properly inscribed. Ninety-five granite markers are few enough to trace 
the almost 500 miles of Trail, but we feel the work well begun. We are glad 
that we did begin before the "Empire Builders" had passed on, while there were 
still those—as we see them here today— who can tell us personal experiences of 
the traffic of the Trail which we do well to record.

  "Communities have shown the greatest interest and helpfulness, farmers at 
the cross-roads have given their time and labor to set the granite boulders. 
Nowhere have they responded so splendidly as in Johnson county, where, besides 
the seven boulders furnished by the State fund, have been placed two fine 
special markers bearing the handsome bronze tablet, designed by Mrs. Miles, of 
Kansas City, which tells the story of the Trail so plainly that 'he who runs 
may read.'

  "This monument standing in the heart of your beautiful city we dedicate 
today. It will speak to those who come after you so clearly that they will 
never forget."

SANTA FE MARKER AT LONE ELM.

  Of the five Santa Fe Trail markers for Johnson county, provided by the 
Daughters of the American Revolution and the legislature of Kansas, the one 
unveiled at Lone Elm, November 9, 1906, was the second to be placed in 
position in this county, and it might be said here that Newton Ainsworth, one 
of the original old settlers, and through whose farm the trail ran, together 
with George Black, were mainly instrumental in getting the marker located at 
Lone Elm. An appropriate program that had been arranged, and was carried out. 
Mr. Ainsworth delivered the following address:

  "We are here today to erect a monument in memory of that which more than 
anything else, wiped out the great American desert.

  "In the beginning, the Santa Fe Trail ran from Old Franklin, Mo., across the 
plains to New Mexico. The merchandise was shipped from St. Louis by steamboat 
to Franklin and from there was freighted west in ox and mule trains. Usually 
but one trip was made a year. After a time the outfitting point was moved from 
Franklin west to Independence, Mo., and later to Westport, the steamboat 
landing being called Kansas, the nucleus of the present Kansas City. This 
trail of those days was like the railroads of today: it made and unmade towns. 
The freighting business was immense. To give an idea of its magnitude, I will 
note the firm of Majors & Russell, who owned and worked on the trail, 1,200 ox 
teams, with six yoke of oxen to the team. This would make 14,400 head of 
cattle and 1,200 wagons, 1,200 drivers and 50 wagon bosses; and that was only 
a drop in the bucket compared with the grand total on the trail. I saw wagon 
trains camped on this Lone Elm camping ground, until they covered more than 
this entire quarter section. In their desire not to be detained, and to be on 
the road first in the morning, they commenced at 12 o'clock at night to hitch 
up and pull for the trail, and the last teams did not pass where we are now 
standing until 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

  "At one time, for three days in succession, the last teams going out of camp 
had not passed here before hundreds were going into camp. The rush to the 
Pike's Peak 'gold fields, in 1858, is what made the heavy emigration and the 
heavy loads of freight that year. All the roads north, east and south centered 
to the Lone Elm camp ground. The great Santa Fe Trail was the main artery to 
the Southwest, and the other roads from north of the river joined it here, 
going east.

  "In 1860 I have seen the dust here over six inches deep on account of the 
great drouth and heavy travel. The freight trains to New Mexico consisted of 
twenty-six wagons, with six yoke of oxen or ten span of mules to each wagon, 
twenty-six drivers and two wagon bosses. Lone Elm was the first camping ground 
after leaving Little Santa Fe, on the Missouri line. This town is noted for 
the fact that more than 1600 votes were cast there at the territorial election 
of October 5-6, 1857, when not more than a half dozen families lived in the 
neighborhood.

  "The Santa Fe Trail follows a dividing line or ridge from here to New 
Mexico, from which the waters run both ways, north and south. The bulk of the 
freight going west, consisted of provisions, merchandise, meats and 
breadstuffs, while the return loads consisted of gold and silver in nail kegs, 
buffalo robes and furs; and, strange to say the gold and silver in the kegs 
did not leak any on the trip.

  "During the height of this heavy freighting, the plains from here to Mexico, 
abounded in immense herds of buffalo, while antelope, deer and elk, were 
plentiful, though now almost extinct. The old system of transportation, slow 
and laborious, has given way to the new system of swiftness, ease and luxury, 
but we are sorry to say, with less honesty.

  "Fifty years ago I was a boy living in Miami county, Ohio. My father owned a 
farm a few miles north of Piqua, and while living there we took a newspaper 
published in New York by Horace Greeley, called the New York 'Tribune.' Mr. 
Greeley not only published glowing accounts of the great West, but kept a 
standing notice in his paper to the effect, "Go West, young man, and grow up 
with the country." After reading Mr. Greeley's grand editorials and his advice 
to young men for ten or twelve years, I managed to get together a little mule 
team and wagon, and started from Piqua about the last days of September, 1856, 
fifty years ago. I drove through the states of Indiana and Illinois, crossed 
the Mississippi river at Rock Island, crossed the State of Iowa and northern 
Missouri, and there, crossing the Missouri river at Iowa Point, came south to 
Wyandotte county. I came to this Lone Elm camp ground, on the Santa Fe Trail 
in February, 1857, and located a claim, though the land was not yet open for 
settlement until May, 1858.

  "In May and June, 1857, I broke seventy acres of the virgin Kansas soil on 
the Lone Elm camp ground. I also broke prairie sod from May till October, all 
over this part of Johnson county for parties who were locating claims. On the 
fourth day of March, 1858, I unloaded the lumber to build a cabin. It was only 
10x11 feet, with the ground for a floor, we lived in it for two years, and it 
was the first cabin erected in this part of the county.

  "When I first came to Kansas it was occupied and held by the Indians; the 
Wyandottes were located in Wyandotte county, the Shawnees partly in Wyandotte 
and partly in Johnson county, and the Delawares in Leavenworth and Wyandotte 
counties; while the Pawnees, Sioux, Cheyennes, and several other tribes 
occupied the lands farther north and west. I feel today that the advice of 
Horace Greeley was good and that in taking it I have not lived my life in 
vain. I have lived to see Kansas the center of the United States; to see her 
pass from the great American desert to the most fruitful soil in the world; 
from savagery to the highest point of our present civilization; and I feel 
proud to think that I have assisted in her advancement."

  After Mr. Ainsworth's address, George Black read a letter from William 
Brady, one of the first county commissioners of Johnson county, as follows:

PIONEERS' EXPERIENCES ON THE OLD TRAIL.

  "Mr. Newt. Ainsworth:

  "Dear Old Friend—I learned through my daughter, Mrs. Susie Du Bois, of 
Kansas City, that you are to have an unveiling of the old Santa Fe Trail 
marker at Lone Elm, which was situated on your farm. The old tree stood at the 
branch just south of your house. I camped there myself on the night of 
November (December—note: As will be seen in the fourth paragraph of this 
letter, Mr. Brady fixes the date of his camp as the day following- the 
Wakarusa war treaty, which occurred on December 8, 1855, a month later) 9, 
1855. It rained all day on the 8th. I was coming from near Topeka, going back 
to Cass county, Missouri. It turned to snow about night, when we came to Lone 
Elm camp ground and there we struck camp.

  "We had some loose cattle and two ox wagons. One of the wagons had bows and 
a sheet on it, and we took those off, stuck the bows in the ground, put the 
sheet on, made our bed under it, and had a nice place to sleep. 'Way in the 
night I heard the bell tinkling and thought it went north down the branch. I 
got up, put my boots and overcoat on, went out, but could not hear one thing. 
It was dark and spitting snow. I thought the bell was going north, as I 
supposed to the nearest timber. The grass was very tall and frozen so that it 
was very difficult to travel. I kept near the branch as best I could as it was 
the only guide I had. The grass was so tall and frozen I sometimes fell down, 
but I got up and tried it again, and came as I thought to a smart piece of 
ground; it looked dark like it had been burned off. I stepped off into water 
up to my boot tops. I scrambled out and went my way.

  "After going some distance I concluded I must be a mile and a half or two 
miles from camp. I stopped and listened, but heard nothing and I concluded I 
had best return to camp or I might get lost. I went back quite a ways and came 
to another piece of ground that looked smooth and covered with a skift of 
snow. I reasoned about it, and thought. "When I stepped in water before, it 
was dark like burned prairie but this is white,' and thinking it a skift of 
snow I stepped on it and went into a pool of water to my waist. I scrambled 
out on the bank and there I lost my way for the time and started due north 
again. I did not go north until I discovered that the wind was in my face 
again, and I knew that would not do, for I had left camp with the wind in my 
face, and as I was now going to camp I must keep the wind to my back. I 
avoided all dark or light spots, and traveled in the grass. I found my way to 
camp all right though the distance back seemed farther than going away. I 
concluded then the cattle might go till daylight, and crawled in under the 
bows and sheet where my friend and little son lay. My outside clothes were 
frozen. I pulled off my boots, poured the water out of them and put them under 
my head, pulled off my socks and wrung the water out of them, put them on 
again and crawled into bed with all my wet clothes on, except my overcoat. I 
was soon warm and sweating. Before I went to sleep I heard the bell tinkling 
close to camp. I slept good the rest of the night.

  "We got up the next morning about daylight. The cattle were within a hundred 
yards of the camp, among some gooseberry bushes. We got a little breakfast and 
started on our way to Missouri, feeling all right. It was quite cold that 
morning; just a little skift of snow. We had not gone a mile from camp before 
we were overtaken by a score or more of boys going home to Missouri. They had 
been up to the Wakarusa camp—the pro-slavery troops were encamped there. The 
free State party was encamped at Lawrence, and were fortifying themselves as 
we came through here on the 8th. Both parties were expecting to fight on the 
9th, but they did not. The boys told us that they had compromised and there 
would be no fight, and that all the men from Missouri went home.

  "I first saw Lone Elm camp ground in 1854 as I came back from looking at the 
country in Douglas county. The old tree was lying on the ground, the greater 
part of it being burned up. I remember seeing a waybill for emigrants to 
California, starting from Independence, Mo. The first points were Barnes' 
Spring, Big Blue, State Line or New Santa Fe, which is north of Stanley now. 
Next point was Lone Elm, then Bull Creek; there the Santa Fe Trail and the 
California Trail forked; the Santa Fe Trail went on west to Black Jack while 
the California Trail went by Spy Bucks, Wakarusa, and the Devil's Backbone, on 
which the State university now stands, overlooking the city of Lawrence.

  "Well, Newt., I wish I could be there and meet with some of the old friends 
who will be there, particularly Beatty Mahaffie and Colonel Burris, and 
probably many others. Give them my kindest regards. Yes, fifty-one years to 
the night before you have the unveiling of the marker, I had my experience at 
the Lone Elm camping ground. I am now in my seventieth year.

                                "Yours respectfully,
                                                "W. H. Brady."

  Then followed short addresses by old settlers. Dan Ramsey, the first one 
introduced, had driven an ox team all the way from North Carolina and settled 
on the flower bespangled plains of Kansas when the Santa Fe Trail was the only 
artery of commerce between the East -and the golden West. Mr. Ramsey had on 
exhibition an old ox bow that had come west with him from North Carolina, a 
curiosity to many of the younger generation.

  Mr. Rutter, of Spring Hill, another pioneer who arrived in Leavenworth in 
1855, and who came to Johnson county in 1857, was the next speaker. He told 
the assemblage of his trip to Pike's Peak in 1859, when Council Grove was the 
last frontier settlement on the long journey.

  V. R. Ellis responded by telling of some of his early experiences and 
reminiscences of the Santa Fe Trail. Mr. Ellis has been a resident of this 
county for about fifty years, and has taken a great interest in the movement 
for marking the great old highway.

  Jonathan Millikan, who boasts of building the first house in Olathe, and of 
having married the first woman in that town, was called upon. Mr. Millikan 
told of his first experience when he landed in what is now Kansas City, about 
half a century ago, describing the great Mexican freight trains that passed 
over the Santa Fe Trail in those days. These trains contained from twenty-five 
to fifty wagons, each wagon being drawn by six, eight, ten, and sometimes 
twelve yoke of oxen, and on some occasions he had seen as many as twenty yoke 
of oxen drawing one wagon, and always huge swarms of flies following the meat 
that was being dried on the sides of the wagon beds.

  Maj. J. B. Bruner, the next speaker, said he did not get here till 1865, but 
remembered the great trains on the Santa Fe Trail, also the unbounded 
generosity and hospitality of Newton Ainsworth, who at that time had just 
completed the finest house in the territory, and had invited all the boys and 
girls of the neighborhood, which at that time included Olathe, Spring Hill, 
Gardner, etc., to come in and help initiate the house. "The girls of forty 
years ago" said the major, "were as sweet and pretty then as the girls are of 
today." The Major is authority on that subject, for he married one of the 
girls of forty years ago, and she has never gotten away from him.

  Senator George H. Hodges, who assisted in putting the bill appropriating 
$1,000 towards the purchase of the markers through the Senate, was called upon 
to say a few words. Mr. Hodges said he had immigrated to this county at a very 
early and tender age, and had brought his parents with him in wagons; that 
when they had stood upon the eastern hills and looked out upon the undulating 
plains, they, too, like the Shawnee Indian, had given utterance to the 
adjective "beautiful." He thought that the star of empire that Horace Greeley 
had seen start for the West had stopped when it had reached a point over 
Kansas, and had continued to hover and shed its rays over this State ever 
since.

  Mrs. John P. St. John was next called upon for a few remarks. She said that 
in her opinion some praise should be given to the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, those women who had by their efforts made possible the occasion 
they then celebrated, by their untiring endeavors and final success in having 
the historic old trail marked.

  Uncle Beatty Mahaffie, the senior of all old settlers present, was next 
called upon, and though very feeble, responded with a recollection of long ago.

  David P. Hougland, who has lived on the trail for about half a century, was 
the next speaker. He related some of the sights he saw in Kansas City when he 
first came west; how he had seen twenty mules trying to pull one wagon up what 
is now called Main street. His description of the first pack mule he ever saw 
was humorous, as was also his story of his hunt for the man who had died of 
cholera and had been buried with $1,000 in gold secreted about his person. It 
was at Lone Elm that Mr. Hougland saw a great flock of blackbirds, and 
remembering the old nursery rhyme, of four and twenty blackbirds baked into a 
pie for a king, took his shot gun and killed fourteen, which he cooked with 
some bacon. That was his first meal on Lone Elm campground, and one that he 
would always remember. Newton Ainsworth says that the main reason why Hougland 
will always remember his blackbird dinner was because, after he had cooked the 
birds to a beautiful and appetizing brown, he stuck his knife into one of them 
and it sizzed like a bottle of champagne. He had forgotten to clean them.

  Senator J. W. Parker recited a few amusing incidents he had run across in 
looking up the history of the old Santa Fe Trail; how Rutter and Hovey, and 
two other young men at the time had advertised for wives in a Boston paper, 
and how they had received answers to their advertisements; the correspondence 
that followed, and the result. The Senator then related the- history of the 
trail so far as he had been able to find it, and from an old Government 
survey, on record in the county surveyor's office, he marked the original 
trail from its entrance into Johnson county at New Santa Fe across what is now 
Oxford, Olathe, Gardner and McCamish townships. No one really knew how far 
back the trail dated, but there was an old Indian tradition and other proofs 
which clearly established that along parts of its course, at least, there was 
a prehistoric, well marked and used highway to and from the Southwest. The 
fitting-out point was at one time Franklin, Mo., later it was Independence, 
and still later Kansas City and Westport. Then the course of the trail was 
changed to come along the top of the divide, through what is now Mission 
township, thence on through Olathe and Gardner, intersecting the original 
trail at Bull Creek crossing near the present site of Edgerton. The Senator 
dedicated the monument to the care of the rising generation, admonishing them 
that the marker was placed in position not merely to mark the old trail, but 
to perpetuate the memory of those old hardy pioneers who braved the dangers of 
the great American desert in the early days, and who made possible the fertile 
farms and comfortable homes of today.

  John T. Burris, the next speaker on the program, was in fine humor, and 
jollied the old boys who had advertised for wives when young, or who had 
married the prettiest girl in Johnson county forty years ago. He said that he 
had not come from Boston, nor North Carolina, nor Kentucky, but from Iowa, 
where he had captured one of the sweetest and dearest sixteen-year-old girls 
that ever lived. "Monuments," said the Judge, "are erected to perpetuate 
important events. The custom is by no means of modern date, but tradition 
ragards such a custom as andedating Biblical history." Judge Burris then spoke 
of some of the great epochs leading up to modern civilization and its 
constantly increasing superiority over the civilization of yesterday; of the 
great change in this country's progress at the close of the Mexican war, and 
how the Santa Fe Trail was made the great avenue of commerce between the 
Missouri river and the great West; of the coming of the railroad and the 
gradual passing away of the freighters and obliteration of the trail, until 
today it is but a memory.

  A. Rebsamen, an old settler who had last Wednesday returned from a month's 
trip to California, was an interesting witness to the ceremonies.. The 
children of Lone Elm school and their teacher, Miss Rebecca Zimmerman, and the 
children of Clare school, with their teacher, Miss Nelle Zimmerman, took a 
prominent part in the exercises of the day, and with their songs raised the 
curtain of by-gone years, and gave the boys and girls of the Santa Fe Trail 
time a glimpse of the past—carried them back in memory's chariot to the days 
when they, too, were carefree and venturesome.

  The monument is a rough boulder of Oklahoma red granite, one side chiseled 
smooth, and the inscription, "Santa Fe Trail, marked by the Daughters of the 
American Revolution and the State of Kansas, 1906," cut thereon. The boulder 
is set on a concrete foundation into which is sunk a marble slab bearing the 
words, "Lone Elm camp grounds, 1822-1872."

THE SANTA FE TRAIL.

  Written by Ed Blair on the dedication of the marker on the Santa Fe Trail at 
Lone Elm, Johnson county, Kansas.

      Fifty years—'Twas a prairie then
      And the deer roamed wild and free;
      Fifty years—I see it again
      As it appeared to me.
      The old trail runs where the barn stands now,
      The trail was here long before the plow, (5)
      And we drove ox teams with sometimes a cow,
      In the days that used to be.

      Fifty years—Yes I lived here then
      And a lively place 'twas too.
      Wagons for miles with their fearless men
      Coming and passing from view.
      On the wagon covers, "Pike's Peak or bust!"
      Yes, the fever was high for the yellow dust
      Just a lot of grit and then their luck to trust,
      For those that won were few.

      Fifty years—'Twas a camping ground
      Where the trees now cast their shade,
      And the faithful oxen rambled around
      And rarely if ever strayed,
      And the camp fires burned each night of the year
      In the pastures there and the cornfields here,
      Yet I slept each night with never a fear,
      And many the friends I made.

      Yes, fifty years—What a striking change
      From the way we do things now,
      No less these farms from the boundless range
      Or the way we sow and plow
      The sickle is gone and the binder's here,
      But the sickle still to my heart is dear,
      But I look in vain for the roving deer
      And the prairie chicken now.

      Fifty years—Ah, I love to know
      That the old trail shall remain,
      That the markers tell in the years to go
      Where the ox team crossed the plain
      Of the men who travelled the toilsome way
      But few are left to tell it today,
      But their march was Progress on its way,
      And its glory ne'er shall wane 

RECOLLECTIONS OF A BULLWHACKER.
(By William Johnson.)

  My talk at this time will have to be more explanatory than anything 2lse. 
The things that we used than and now have changed as well as words. Words that 
were used in earlier times to express a certain meaning, today convey quite a 
different impression. The word "trail" as used then, in regard to a route, 
meant about what we would now call a "patch," and often a very dim one. At 
that time they were further designated as "foot trails" or "mule trails," 
meaning that the "foot trails" a man could travel but a mule couldn't, or that 
a mule could travel but a wagon couldn't. When the route became plainer and 
larger so it could be traveled by wagons it became a road.

  At the time of which I speak, during the later fifties, there were two main 
routes across what we then called the "plains." The southern route, which was 
the Santa Fe route, went from the Missouri river in a general western 
direction passing through Council Grove and on until it struck the Arkansas 
(as we called it), river about Great Bend and then followed up the river to 
the mouth of the Purgatorie (pronounced Picketware) river to Trinidad, then 
crossing the Raton mountains and on by way of Fort Union to Santa Fe.

  The northern route run from the Missouri river in a general northwest 
direction, striking the Platte river a little east of Fort Kearney, and then 
following up the river. The outfits bound for Fort Laramie, Salt Lake, 
California, and Oregon, usually followed the Platte about the mouth of Pole 
creek and followed up that stream. The Denver outfits continued up the Platte 
to their destinations; some of them, however, took what was known as the "cut 
off," leaving the Platte at the mouth of Bijou creek, by so doing saving quite 
a distance.

  I have seen a good many pictures of Government wagons that were used on the 
plains. These were made by some officer or soldier, who was artist enough to 
use a pencil, and naturally made pictures of what was around him. 
Bullwhackers, as freighters were called, were artists in the use of a whip or 
gun, but knew very little about the pencil; consequently no pictures of 
freight wagons.

  The principal difference of the Government wagon was the body or box of the 
Government wagon was always paneled—the freight wagons never were. The 
Government wagons always had iron axles while the ox-freight wagons had wooden 
axles, the wheels held in place by linchpins. The Government wagons had 
straight ends, while the freight wagons' end was longer at the top than 
bottom. The Government wagons were .shorter than the freight wagons.

  I will make a slight description of a freight wagon. The front wheels were 3 
feet 10 inches high, the hind wheels 5 feet, the box was 3 feet 10 inches 
wide, 12 feet long at the bottom, 16 feet long at the top, with side boards 5 
feet high, with wooden bows fastened to the box with staples, over these bows 
went the wagonsheet; an ordinary man could just about stand up under the 
sheet. These wagons were usually loaded from sixty to eighty hundred. Such a 
thing as a brake or a lock on a wagon was not known in this country at that 
time. We used a lock chain fastened on the side of the box; this chain went 
around the fellow and fastened with a toggle. When you wanted to lock the 
wagon, you had to stop to put the chain in place, and the same when you wanted 
to unlock it.

  A large portion of the freight hauled at the time of which I speak, was 
Government supplies largely consisting of corn, flour and bacon, most of which 
was purchased near the Missouri river. I remember one peculiar phase of the 
freight contracts: The freighter was responsible for shrinkage but not for 
leakage, hence it was not very uncommon for wagons loaded with corn, if a rain 
came up a day or two before reaching their destination, to have the sheet 
blown off and the corn a little damp, and sometimes a whiskey barrel was found 
to be only half full.

  A train consisted of twenty-six wagons, twenty-five for freig'ht and one 
mess (or, as we called it grub) wagon, five and six yoke of cattle to the 
team, one wagon-master, one assistant wagon-master and one extra hand. These 
three were mounted on mules and the only mules there were in a full train, 
twenty-six drivers and two night herders. A good many freighters did not 
furnish night herders. A train usually traveled from sixteen to eighteen miles 
a day.

  Alex Majors demanded of his wagon-masters that they do no traveling on 
Sunday, and to allow no swearing among the men. Neither order did I ever know 
to be carried out, in fact, a wagon-master, after he had been out a month, 
hardly ever knew when Sunday came, but he usually laid up one day in the week 
because he found his cattle did better, but usually he laid up one-half day at 
a time.

  Uusually a train commenced yoking up about daylight or soon after and 
traveled until about 9:00 or 10:00 o'clock and then stopped for breakfast, 
remaining in camp until about 3 o'clock and then traveled until dark or nearly 
so, when we got our supper, never eating but two meals a day.

  In regard to provisions—grub, we called it,—we had bacon, bread and coffee, 
beans enough to have about one mess a week and enough dried apples for a mess 
once in two weeks. We usually started with some sugar but I never knew it to 
hold out the trip. One time I had a barrel of pickles. Sometimes in driving up 
the cattle a man would kill a jack-rabbit. This was his individual property, 
but he usually divided it. Once in a great while someone would kill a deer, 
antelope or buffalo. This always went to the mess of the men who killed it 
unless there was more than one mess could use. If so, it was divided among the 
others. I never knew any of the freighters to furnish a man just to hunt. The 
Mexican trains always furnished hunters. The bacon furnished us was always the 
heaviest that could be bought, the sides often being five or six inches thick. 
This was cheaper than other meat, besides furnishing us more shortening for 
our bread. Our bread was made with flour, bacon grease, salt, soda and water 
(at this time baking powder was unknown, at least to us), and baked in an oven 
set over a small fire of buffalo chips with more fire on the lid. All of this 
sounds strange with the unlimited varieties of canned goods at the present 
time, but at that time the only canned goods on the market were a very few 
peaches, cove oysters, and sardines, and from a train-owner's view, they were 
altogether too rich for a bullwhacker's blood. But I never knew of a case of 
dyspepsia on the plains, neither do I remember a time when a bullwhacker 
wasn't ready to eat when grub pile was called.

  We lived out of doors all the time, sometimes for months at a time without 
being in a house, sleeping in our blankets and buffalo robes on the ground, 
sometimes waking up in the morning covered with snow. I never had a tent, nor 
do I remember of seeing one with a freight outfit, and I don't think I ever 
had a lantern.

  The word "outfit," as herein used, meant everything, consisting of men, 
wagons, stock, provisions and mess-kit. We also used the word "outfit" in 
another way. A great many of the men, when hired, had nothing but the clothes 
they had on; they were taken either the day before or the day the train was 
ready to start, to some store, where the owner of the train had made 
arrangements, and allowed to purchase such things as they needed, such as 
blankets, clothing, tobacco, knives, or anything in reason. These things were 
charged to them and entered in the train book, and taken out of their wages 
when they were paid off.

  The men were generally hired in two ways: So much a month for a round trip, 
or a larger amount per month and take their discharge when the train was 
unloaded.

   A good many of the owners of trains, who followed freighting on the plains, 
lived in and around Westport, Mo. Some of them whom I remember, that lived on 
their farms, were Majors McKinney, Carr, Yeager and the four Hays brothers. 
These men usually corraled their wagons on their farms and herded their cattle 
near them. Among those that I remember, who lived in Westport, were the 
Bernards, Kearney, Hamilton and Findley. These usually corraled their wagons 
near the edge of the timber and close to water. They ordinarily considered 
that grass would be up enough by the twentieth day of May for the cattle to 
travel on and made their arrangements to make their start as soon after this 
as they could get off. Westport was a very busy place from the middle of May 
to the first of July.

  The Mexican trains and Indian traders began to come in soon after the first 
of June. These ordinarily were not freighters, although they used the same 
kinds of outfits. Possibly one-fifth of the Mexicans had mule trains. These 
trains usually corraled their wagons on what is now the Kansas side of Brush 
creek.

  Among the Indian traders, Bent always made his camp on what we always 
called "Bent's Hill." The ground is now owned by John Roe. Ward's camp was at 
a spring three-quarters of a mile west of the State line at about 60th street, 
on ground lately sold by Henry Coppook. Lexton made his camp at a spring on 
the Reinhardt place.

  These men, Indian traders and Mexican merchants, left their train here while 
they went to St. Louis and bought their goods and shipped them to Kansas City 
by steamboats. The trains would generally be in camp here from one to two 
months. The traders brought in with them mostly buffalo robes, buck skins, 
(antelope skins were classed as buck skins), beaver felts, and anything else 
along this line that they could trade for these goods, they shipped to St. 
Louis and sold them there. They also brought with them a good many ponies, 
these they sold at their camps or at Westport.

  This is how we made axle grease, "dope" as we called it. We took rosin with 
us and bought tallow from traders. (I am speaking now of the time when 
buffaloes were plentiful.) This tallow was rendered out in the buffalo 
hunter's camp in a kettle over a buffalo chip fire. A receptable to hold it 
was made by taking one-half of a hide and cutting holes in the four sides of 
it, through which were run sticks, then pressing it down in the center, thus 
forming a bag. Then four sticks with a crotch at the top were driven in the 
ground and the four corners of the bag with the sticks still in place were 
placed on the crotches, the bag cleaning the ground. In this was poured the 
melted tallow and allowed to stand until the tallow hardened and it was then 
turned out and the bag was ready to be filled again.

  In the time of extreme wet weather, our cattle's hoofs would become soft and 
traveling in the sand, would become very thin, sometimes breaking through and 
then it became necessary to shoe them. We always carried shoes and nails with 
us. The shoes used for this purpose had neither toes nor calks, different from 
the shoes used for rocky or icy roads. If a steer's foot was broken through, 
and it was necessary to use a pad, we usually cut the pad out of our hat rim.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


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