Johnson County KS Archives History - Books .....Chapter XVII What The First Woman Saw 1915
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Book Title: History Of Johnson County Kansas

CHAPTER XVII.
-WHAT THE FIRST WOMAN SAW HERE.

What The First Woman Saw Here—An Interview with Jonathan Millikan—Henry
Wedd—Some Early Day Events in Johnson County and Kansas—A Pioneer's
Recollections—A Story of Early Days—Fifty Years After—Reminiscences—A
Retrospective View—Yeager Raid Incidents.

(By Mrs. Emily L. Millikan.)

  On May 27, 1858, fifty years ago last May, in company with my brother, Dr. J.
B. Whittier, I arrived in Olathe, the first woman resident of our now beautiful
city. We came from Manchester, N. H., by rail to Jefferson City, Mo., the then
terminus of the railroad, and came by steamboat from that point to Kansas City.
At St. Louis we had stopped at the Planters' House, where the accommodations
were very poor. The rats were by far the most numerous guests, although there
were not so many as found in Kansas City. There was but one hotel in the latter
place, which, with one small store, and a few small dwelling houses near the
river, constituted what is now the thriving metropolis at the mouth of the Kaw.

  There was a stage route from Kansas City to Santa Fe which ran once a month,
but as we did not happen to be lucky enough to meet it, we had to remain in
Kansas City all night. The second day we got a conveyance in the shape of a
covered wagon for Olathe. This I considered quite romantic, as I had never seen
one of the kind before.

  After leaving Shawnee Mission, we passed only a few shanties on our way to
Olathe as we followed the old Santa Fe Trail, arriving at Indian Creek about
dark. There we found a kind of an Indian hotel, with meager accommodations, but
preferred to sleep in the wagon, while my brother and the man that drove the
team slept under it. That was my first experience in camping out.

  Some time during the night there was a long train of Mexicans passed near by
where we were camped for the night. This disturbed my slumbers considerably, as
they made such a tremendous noise by the bellowing of cattle and the cracking of
whips. You could hear them in the stillness of the night for miles away. Their
wagons were as near like a boat on wheels as anything I can think of. Each wagon
was drawn by six yoke of oxen, and sometimes with more, and a Mexican, mounted,
riding as driver, shouting and cracking his whip. There were often as many as
forty or fifty wagons in the train, and it was not uncommon to see a large
number of oxen or mules following, to be used, a supply, in case one of the
animals of the team died.

  Well, we got through the night all .right. In the morning we started quite
early for Olathe, and as we came up the hill, in front of where we now live, in
full view of the little town the early morning sun shone on the prairie covered
with beautiful flowers, and I thought it looked "beautiful, O-la-the." We soon
arrived in Olathe, our 'destination.   The words of the poet, Whittier, came to
my mind:

    "We crossed the prairies, as of old
         The Pilgrim crossed the sea,
     To make the West, as they the East,
         The homestead of the free."

  Fifty years have added to the convenience of living in Olathe, but have not
added to the beauty of the spot. We found Mr. Connor, my brother's partner,
ready to welcome us. They had come here in April and made arrangements to open a
hotel, and then my brother had returned to Manchester, for me.

  There were only fifteen young men here then, and no women. The first woman I
saw after I came were two big squaws who unexpectedly stuck their heads through
a broken pane of glass in the room where I was, and greatly startled me. I
invited them in and chatted with them a while, although I couldn't understand a
word they said. It was three weeks after arriving in Olathe before I saw a white
woman. Mr. Connor went down near Edgerton and got a girl to work for us. She,
who is now Mrs. Martin Ott, and a friend of hers stopped with us for a while at
the hotel. After that my brother went to Kansas City and got a woman to work in
the hotel, by the name of Mary Whalen, afterwards known as Mary Tappy or Mary
Kirby. It has been said that she was the second woman here, but that is a
mistake. She had a little girl by the name of Mary Ann Whalen, about six months
old, I think, when she came here.

  The first white child born in Olathe, that I have any knowledge of, was a
daughter of James Hamilton. She was born in the first dwelling house built in
Olathe. This house was built by Jonathan Millikan and now stands on Poplar
street on the north side between Cherry Street and Kansas Avenue. There was,
however, a colored child, a slave, born previous to that on the north side of
the square.

  When I came here there was a small building on the north side of Santa Fe
Avenue, near where the Hotel Olathe now stands, and a small store building on
Kansas Avenue near the present site of the Avenue House. The latter was built by
Dr. Barton and Charles A. Osgood, in which a grocery store was then kept by
Herman Scott and Jacob Thuma. The hotel where I lived was the next building
erected, consisting of a kitchen and two bed rooms, in one side and another
building close by, so that one could step into the other, consisting of a dining
room and office; in the second story of the latter building there was only one
room. This store stood near the northwest corner of Kansas and Santa Fe Avenues.
There I lived until cold weather. Then my brother got me a place to board, with
a family by the name of William Tuttle. He was one of the oldest settlers, and
lived on a claim north of town, in a log house. I boarded there until after
Henderson H. Boggs built the Avenue House, as it is called now, on the west side
of Kansas Avenue. He kept it a while and sold it to Mr. Hobard and Mr. Thuma,
who soon sold it to my brother. We lived there until three weeks before I was
married to Mr. Millikan, which was on the twenty-fifth day of November, 1858.

  The first minister who preached in Olathe was an Episcopalian, by the name of
Drummond. The next was a Southern Methodist, by the name of Rice, Charles
Bowles, and then came I. C. Beach. Dr. Barton was the first physician. John M.
Giffen printed the first newspaper, which was called the Olathe "Herald". John
P. Campbell and Charles Mayo were the first lawyers. Colonel Burris and others
came in 1858. C. E. Waldon established the first bank, in a small room where the
north Odd Fellows' building is now located. Martin Ott was Olathe's first baker,
and S. F. Hill handled the first stock of dry goods and groceries and was our
first postmaster.

  In the fall of 1858 J. B. Whittier sold out his interests in the hotel to Ben
Dare, who, in turn, sold out to S. F. Hill and left town. Mr. Arnett taught the
first school. The first death that I remember of was that of a gentleman from
Ohio, by the name of Bishop. He died at the hotel and was buried in the old
burying ground. It has been said that Mr. Jenkins' death was the first, but I
believe that he died the following year in Spring Hill and was buried by the
Masons. Mr. Millikan and I attended the funeral.

  I was here when Quantrill plundered the town and heard the fatal shots that
killed the Judy boys. I was also here when he made the raid on Lawrence, and
when the news came that he was coming to Olathe the second time on his return
from Lawrence the men ran in all directions. We were happily disappointed, as
Quantrill passed farther south. Mr. Millikan, John P. Campbell, William Bronaugh
and Jiles Milhoan had gone to Topeka on business and I thought they had about
sufficient time to get back to Lawrence, but, fortunately, by stopping about ten
miles the other side of Lawrence to get breakfast, they missed that terrible
raid. They saw the ruin and havoc and dead and dying strewn all around town, a
fearful sight, with women and children weeping on every side.

  I have seen Olathe grow from its infancy to be one of the most thriving and
beautiful towns in the State of Kansas, have been familiar with the various
changes that have taken place in the citizenship and have known personally of
its pleasures and its sadness. And I feel as only those can feel who have been
here during the fifty years covered by my experiences here, so completely
identified with its history in progress and success.

AN INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN MILLIKAN.

  The history of Johnson county could not be written without Jonathan Millikan's
name coming in here and there on its pages, for Jonathan Millikan at the ripe
old age of eighty-eight is still active and taking an interest in Olathe and
Johnson county.

  "It is pretty hard for me to get up and move around very lively first," said
he, "but I soon get straightened up, and go pretty well yet." Mr. Millikan still
wears the smile that has won his place in the hearts of the people in Olathe.
and he loves to talk of Olathe as it was when he first came here in 1857. Mr.
Millikan was born in Monroe county, Indiana, January 2, 1827, and three years
later moved with his parents to Parke county. In 1851 he made a trip to New
Orleans on a flat boat, went twice to Iowa, taught school in Indiana, and in
1853 made two more trips to Iowa, then to Nebraska, and in 1857 came to Olathe,
Kan. He purchased two quarters of land east of town, one for $450, the other for
$400. Mr. Millikan made these purchases in i860 or 1861. He fenced both tracts
with four rail "stake-and-rider" fence, hauling 2,000 of the rails from the Kaw
river, twelve miles north. Mr. Millikan married an Olathe girl, Miss Emily L.
Whittier, a second cousin of the poet, John Greenleaf Whittier. Four children
were born to them, Minnie E., Mardie B., Ella L. and Orian. Mrs. Millikan was
the first white woman to locate in Olathe, and at the time of her marriage was
assisting her brother, J. B. Whittier, who was operating a hotel in two small
buildings near the southwest corner of the square. He called his hotel the Union
House.

  Mr. Millikan remembers clearly Quantrill's raids of Olathe and Lawrence. He
says, "Jiles Milhoan's (J. H. Milhoan) being so counfounded lazy" is all that
saved Mr. Bronaugh, Milhoan, Lawler Campbell and himself from being killed at
Lawrence. This party of four had been to Topeka attending a trial in court and
got through at 11 o'clock at night. Mr. Millikan had taken them up there in his
wagon, and being anxious to get home he had the horses hitched ready to start
back, intending to get to Lawrence for breakfast. Mr. Milhoan objected and said,
"Lets lie down and take a nap first or we will all die for want of sleep." So
they decided to do this. They slept in the wagon with their clothes on until 3
or 4 o'clock before they started, and got to Big Springs, where they stopped for
breakfast.

  "Just after leaving Big Springs," said Mr. Milligan, "I saw a man coming
horseback, waving his arms and, acting as if he was either drunk or crazy. I
didn't stop my team till he had passed us five or six steps. I thought we had
better find out what was the matter with him, as I suspected something was
wrong. When he spoke he said, 'For God's sake don't go further east as Quantrill
is in town, burning and killing everybody.' We halted then, and the man came up
to the wagon and Campbell, 'Secesh' you know, made the remark, I am a
law-abiding man.' I'asked the man how many 'Rebs' there" were with Quantrill,
and he said: 'Four thousand!' The man was almost scared to death. When we came
on to Wakefield, five miles the other side of Lawrence, he told us that the
'Rebs' had left Lawrence then. We saw from the smoke rising in different places
that they had gone toward Baldwin as they occasionally burned a house. When we
saw they were going south we went on to Lawrence on a fast trot. When we reached
there, it looked like nearly every one was killed—only a few living persons in
sight. They had picked up nearly all the dead except those in the burned
buildings. They had the churches cleared out and put the dead in there. I passed
by a church that had two rows of dead in it. I saw fifteen or twenty buildings
burned down. The bodies in these buildings were still so hot they were not
disturbed. It was the most sorrowful looking sight I ever saw. A lady by the
name of Gardner, I think she is living in Lawrence yet, a milliner at the time,
said that they set fire to her house three different times, but she put it out.
The last time the scoundrel started the fire he said to her: "Damn you, I'll
kill you if you put that fire out!" But she was game, and put the fire out and
was not molested. There was not a frame house standing between her place and
Eldridge Hotel. We stayed about an hour, would have stayed longer, but were so
anxious to get home, as we feared Quantrill might come to Olathe, as they had to
come through Johnson county to get to Lawrence.

  Mr. Millikan has a Quantrill flag that he picked up at the southeast corner of
the square in Olathe, where the old Santa Fe marker now stands, the morning
after Quantrill's raid. The flag was picked up in the presence of Baty Mahaffie
and Mr. Crockett. Mr. Millikan kept the flag hid in a straw stack for two years
and then his wife kept it in the house for a long time. The flag now is in a
glass case and has the following card attached to it: "This flag was picked up
by Jonathan Millikan on the morning of September 7, 1862, after Quantrill's
raid." A figure in white representing a plant or tree perhaps, but looking much
like a hand with the fingers off at the second joints, is in a blue square four
by five inches, in one corner of the flag. Across the figure is embroidered the
word, "Quaint." A red bar two and one-half inches by twelve runs the full length
of the flag. Then a white bar, two and one-half by eight, and another red bar
the same size completes the flag, which is seven and one-half by twelve inches
in size. It has thin tape binding around it.

  "My wife and I were sleeping in this house," said Mr. Millikan, "which stood
on my other quarter of land, one-half mile east, when Quantrill came that night,
and we knew nothing of the raid until 9 o'clock the next morning. I was starting
out to hunt my horses, on the prairie, and met Baty Mahaffie, and with him and
another man went to town. The town was badly riddled. Most of the windows had
been broken, and many of the doors smashed in. One of our neighbors, Mr.
Shriver, came into town with the report that he had found John J. Judy and his
brother, James B. (who had enlisted in the Twelfth Kansas), dead on the prairie
east of town on my claim. My wife and I had heard some shots during the night,
but did not think anything of it as there was lots of shooting going on those
days. We went out there at once and found the two brothers about one hundred
yards east of the two cedar trees that stand near the Strang line railway." Mr.
Millikan is a lover of antiques. He has a pewter dish which was used for
potatoes or a meat platter in 1790, and was one of the expensive dishes in those
days.

  The following engraving tells its history:

  "This dish was used by Bey Millikan of North Carolina in 1780. Was made the
property of Jonathan Millikan, Sr., of Indiana, in 1844, is now the property of
Jonathan Millikan, Jr., of Kansas, 1907."

  Mr. Millikan also has a card printed at Quindaro, K. T., announcing the
opening of the Olathe House in 1857. The hotel stood on the west side of the
square. The card reads:

  "Olathe House, Olathe, Johnson Co., K. T.

  "The above house is now open for the accommodation of the traveling public
where every attention will be paid those favoring us with a call.
                             Whittier and Conner,
                                      "Proprietors."

  Mr. Whittier was a brother-in-law of Mr. Millikan and is still living in
Nebraska.

HENRY WEDD.

  Henry Wedd, Sr., of Lenexa, Kan., is one of the interesting old-timers of
Johnson county and saw much of the border warfare in the early days. Mr. Wedd is
ninety-four years old, September, 1915, and he is still active in business
affairs, and goes about alone on his visits and wherever his business may take
him. He still stands erect and his neighbors call him that "Wedd boy." He came
to Kansas in the spring of 1858, to Westport Landing, and his wife and five
children came later in the fall. During the war Mr. Wedd had a lively time with
the bushwhackers, and three different times escaped when they came for him. The
first time, in 1863, thirty men rode up to his house, led there by a man who had
worked for him. He heard the sabers rattle as the horses galloped over the
prairie and got out of the house in time to see them first. They rode up to the
house and called out: "Open the door and strike a light." Mrs. Wedd lit a lamp
and opened the door for them and they searched the house, but not finding him
rode off. Two weeks later they came again and Mr. Wedd was in the house. He knew
he dared not venture out, so slipped upstairs where his son, Charles, was
sleeping on the floor. Charles was crippled with a white swelling and lay on the
mattress on the floor. Mr. Wedd got under the mattress and Mrs. Wedd told the
bushwhackers that he was not at home. After looking around they went outside to
report, when, by accident, one of the men stumbled on the boots that Mrs. Wedd
had thrown outside before they entered. On finding them they came back and told
her that her husband was inside the house and that they were going upstairs to
search. Ten or twelve of them went up and pulled Charles out of bed and
discovered Mr. Wedd. He expected to be shot, but Mrs. Wedd begged the captain to
spare him and they left, taking some things along, but leaving the pair of
boots, as no one had feet large enough to wear them. Someone of the crowd said
to another as they went out: "Don't let Wedd know who we are." Some of the men
had masks on.

  Two weeks later the raiders came again, and a mile south of the Wedd's shot
two men, one man eighty years old, by the name of Norton. They also killed Reese
Langford, a neighbor. Mr. Wedd heard the shots and said to his wife: "Mother,
did you hear that? I'll bet , they've got old man Norton and Reese Langford." He
had guessed right. Mr. Norton, so feeble he could not stand alone, was held up
in the doorway by the ruffians while others shot him. His son got out of an
upstairs window, slid down the chimney and crawled away in the darkness without
being discovered. Mr. Langford was called out and told he was wanted at the
barn, and as he stepped out on the porch was shot dead. As the ruffians left,
one of them made the remark, "We'll get the third one before daylight," meaning
Mr. Wedd. Again they went to his house but Mr. Wedd having heard the shots was
not at home when they came. However, they stole a horse and a span of mules. Mr.
Wedd asked a Mr. Boyle, an Indian neighbor, to go with him to Lawrence to hunt
for them. The day they got there they found a man riding the stolen horse
carrying a sack of flour. Mr. Wedd went up to him and said: "Get right off,
you're on my horse. I can prove it." Mr. Wedd tried to prove his claim by the
testimony of the Indian but this was objected to. Then Mr. Wedd told them he
would bring witnesses from Olathe. While in Lawrence at this time a Red Leg rode
up behind him and shot at him twice. Prior to this time, Mr. Wedd had hauled
some wounded soldiers from the Missouri line to Olathe and refused to accept pay
for his services, stating that in the future he might ask a favor. The officer
in charge of Olathe's soldiers at that time was still there, and Mr. Wedd went
to Olathe to see him. He wrote a note to the commander of troops at Leavenworth,
where the mules had been transferred and sold to the Government in the meantime,
saying: "Get them at any cost, whatever it may be," and gave the note to Mr.
Wedd. Mr. Wedd then went to Leavenworth and in an hour had possession of the
mules. While returning with his mules, three Red Legs passed him and the Indian,
and Mr. Wedd, guessing that their intention was to kill him and take the mules,
changed his route, going by Choteau's ferry, and arrived safely home.

  Later he sold the team for $300. Mr. Wedd had this span of mules stolen three
different times. Once he found them in an old house at Wea, near Bucyrus, and
another time they came home with a sixty-foot rope to them.

  Mr. and Mrs. Wedd celebrated their golden wedding July 3, 1896, with their
seven children, grandchildren and a host of friends. Mrs. Wedd died December 1,
1908.

SOME EARLY DAY EVENTS IN JOHNSON COUNTY AND KANSAS.

(By John T. Burris.)

  As to whether Judge Burris still remembers this period of Kansas history his
own account of it is the best evidence.

  "I was elected to the Wyandotte convention as one of Johnson county's two
representatives by a majority of but two votes." he said. "That shows how close
Johnson county was on the question of slavery. My colleague was J. T. Barton,
who was the caucus nominee of the pro-slavery party for president of the
convention.

  "I came to Olathe in 1858 from Washington county, Iowa, where I had
home-steaded and practiced law since my return from the Mexican war. Kansas
already had made three attempts to frame a constitution when in March, 1859, the
voters of the territory, under an act of the legislature, declared for a fourth
convention. The election of delegates took place June 7. I had been a Whig all
my life, but the Kansas Democrats had proclaimed themselves an anti-Lecompton
Free State party, and these were my views also. I accepted that party's
nomination as delegate from Johnson county and was elected.

  "The convention met in Wyandotte, now Kansas City, Kan., on July 5, and
remained in session twenty-four days. I did not share the fear entertained by
some that the convention stood in any danger from the lawless element that had
terrorized the Free State population of the territory since the beginning of the
struggle for supremacy here. Although the pro-slavery minority fought the
constitution from the start to the finish and finally refused to sign it, when
adopted there were no turbulent or violent scenes during the deliberations of
the convention. J. P. Slough, of Leavenworth county, was the leader of the
minority and a little more inclined to be combative than the others. He had been
a member of the Ohio legislature and was expelled from that body on account of a
fighting propensity, I believe. Once he threw off his coat in the convention and
was going to 'lick' somebody, but the sergeant-at-arms subdued him. Slough,
however, was an able lawyer, and following an honorable career in the army,
where he attained the rank of brigadier general, he became chief justice of the
supreme court of New Mexico. Many others of the convention attained equal
distinction. Samuel A. Kingman, of Brown county, became chief justice of the
Kansas Supreme Court. Kingman was from Massachusetts and took a leading part in
the convention. Benjamin F. Simpson, of Lykins county, a lawyer from Ohio, was
the first attorney general of the new State. W. R. Griffin, of Bourbon county,
was the first superintendent of public instruction. John A. Martin, secretary of
the convention, became the governor of Kansas. Better known, of course, to this
generation, were John Ingalls and Edmund G. Ross. Ingalls sat for Atchinson
county with Caleb May and Robert Graham. He was one of the younger men of the
convention, but even then had begun to develop the oratorical powers that
afterwards held the attention of the Senate, and the country. Very
appropriately, he was chairman of the committee on phraseology and arrangement,
and whatever literary merit the constitution may have is due to him. Ross was a
printer and ran a weekly newspaper at Topeka. I do not recall what his special
activities were in the convention. At a later period when his vote in the Senate
saved President Johnson from impeachment he clashed with public opinion in
Kansas, and became a target for the most violent abuse. I have always believed,
however, that he acted properly and from the purest motives.

  "The Wyandotte convention met in a building that stood near the river. It long
since has disappeared and I doubt if I could identify its site today. The
sessions began at 9 o'clock and usually ended at supper time. Occasionally,
however, night sessions were held. The lineup of the members was determined when
the convention organized. The Free State vote of thirty-five was given to J. M.
Winchell, of Osage county, for president, and J. T. Barton received the
seventeen votes of the opposition. The first thing the convention did when it
got down to business was to accept the constitution of Ohio as a model. This was
not accomplished without debate. Some fifteen states of the Union were
represented in the convention, and opinion was greatly divided as to which one
had the best organic law. Another question requiring early settlement was the
boundary dispute. There was a strong movement to include in the new State that
portion of Nebraska lying south of the Platte river, and a delegation from that
territory appeared and asked to be seated. In the western part of the territory
the county of Arapahoe had some claim to admission, also, but neither
proposition met with approval.

  "The constitution was voted on and adopted section by section as reported by
committees. The debates were usually animated but short. Nearly everyone had
something to say, but few long speeches were made. There was some lively
discussion over the sixth section of the bill of rights, which excluded slavery,
but more over the language of it than anything else, because there never was any
doubt about the exclusion of slavery. That was what the convention had met for.
As reported to the convention the language of the section was that of the
ordinance of 1787 and used subsequently in the Thirteenth amendment that neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whether the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist. The objection made was that
imprisonment for crime was not slavery and that the words were
meaningless—applied to Kansas, where slavery had never existed. The section as
adopted was a compromise. The historic words were retained, preceded by the
plain declaration, 'there shall be no slavery in this State.' An attempt to
secure the suspension of the operation of this section for a year after the
admission of the State marked the last stand of the pro-slavery men in the
convention. The resolution was voted down twenty-eight to eleven."

  Following the adjournment of the convention Mr. Burris stumped Johnson county
to urge the adoption of the constitution at the election which was held on
October 4, 1859. On that day 15,951 Kansans went to the polls and the
constitution was ratified by a majority of 4,891.

  Judge Burris was born December 22, 1828, in Butler county, Ohio, when he was
eleven years old, his parents moved to Kentucky and at eighteen he rode
horseback to Washington county, Iowa, where a new home was made. At the outbreak
of the Mexican war he enlisted and served throughout the hostilities. Returning
to Iowa, he studied law and was admitted to the bar there in 1853. Two years
later he was elected judge of the county court and served in that capacity two
years, when he determined to seek a larger field in the new territory of Kansas.

  After the adoption of the Wyandotte constitution Mr. Burris was elected to the
Territorial legislature in i860. When President Lincoln was inaugurated he went
to Washington and was commissioned a sergeant in Gen. James H. Lanes's company
of Frontier Guards, which was detailed to guard Mr. Lincoln until the arrival of
regular troops in Washington. For about three weeks in April and May, 1861, the
company was quartered in the White House. When the company was disbanded
President Lincoln appointed Mr. Burris district attorney for Kansas and he
returned to the new State.

  In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in the Fourth Kansas infantry, later
reorganized at the Tenth Kansas volunteers, and served throughout the war.
During Gen. Sterling Prices's Missouri raid he fought at Lexington, at the Big
and Little Blue, Westport, Mine Creek and Newtonia.

  'Price chased us from Lexington to Westport and we chased him from Westport to
the Osage river," Judge Burris said in speaking of this period. "My family could
plainly hear the cannonading at the Blue at our home in Olathe. I managed to get
a telegram to them and they packed up and went to Lawrence, as did most of the
inhabitants of the town. At that time I was doubtful of our ability to check
Price's advance."

  At the close of the war Judge Burris was again elected to the legislature and
was chosen speaker of the house. In 1866 he was elected county attorney of
Johnson county, and three years later was appointed judge of the tenth judicial
district. In 1870 Judge Burris again sat in the legislature for his district,
which service was succeeded by two terms as prosecuting attorney of Johnson
county. In 1879 he was returned to his old place on the bench of the district
court. In 1907 he was returned to his old place as probate judge from which
position he retired January 11, 1911.

  "I have been a busy man all my life," he said. "I have seen Kansas grow from a
frontier territory, containing a handful of immigrants, to-a great and populous
State. That I had some share in laying the foundations for its greatness and
prosperity is a source of great satisfaction to me in my old age. The Wyandotte
convention did a great work. After all the years of strife and bloodshed, in the
struggle of parties for control of the territory, this convention of young and
untried men, assembled with a common purpose and made Kansas a free State. Nor
did the service of these men end with the convention. Many of them went into the
war and fought for the State and Nation. James G. Blunt, who was chairman of the
committee on military affairs in the convention, became a major general, the
only Kansan to attain that rank during the war. Davis, Ross, Simpson, Ritchie,
Hippie, Middleton, Martin, Nash, all served with Kansas regiments and won
distinction in the field as many of them did later in civil life.

  "The constitution produced by the Wyandotte convention has stood the test of
half a century. Under it Kansas has found liberties secure and her material
prosperity unchecked. I see no reason why it should not continue the organic law
for centuries to come."

A PIONEER'S RECOLLECTIONS.
(By Newton Ainsworth.)

  Fifty years ago this whole section was bald prairie. Deer and Indians roamed
wild and free. Fifty years ago last February I came to where Olathe now
stands—there were three of us with a load of lumber to-locate claims. We stopped
on the high point where the monument now stands. Not a tree was to be seen, but
the country was beautiful and the land looked good.

  While we were looking around a  man by the name of Charles Osgood, who was
camped on the branch north of where Olathe now stands, came up and asked us if
we were looking for claims. We told him we were. Mr. Osgood had a survey plat of
the county. He charged ten dollars for helping us to locate claims. We went four
miles south to the Lone Elm Camp Ground and located, and I have lived there ever
since.

  The second time I came out was the last of March, 1857, with lumber to build a
corral. There was a load of stakes piled up to lay out the town. My best
recollection is that the town was laid off the last of March or the first of
April, 1857. One or two houses were built in the summer of 1857. Beginning with
the spring of 1858, Olathe built up very fast, until the war, which stopped the
growth for a few years.

  During the war, in '62 or '63, the State militia was camped here. While the
Price raid was going on at Westport, Mo., we dug a trench around the court house
yard, about three or four feet deep, for breastworks, but were ordered to the
front before we had to use them.

  Since the war, Olathe and the country around, have had a wonderful growth, not
surpassed by any part of the United States. What will it be in fifty years to
come? Olathe will be a part of Kansas City and Kansas City will be among the
largest cities in the United States. There is no city in the United States that
has the agricultural backing that Kansas City has.

A STORY OF EARLY DAYS.
(By J. R. Thorne.)

  In May, of the year of 1857, there might have been seen two boys with ox
teams, wending their way across northern Missouri, from the State of Ilinois, to
the pains of sunny Kansas. One of the boys was twenty years of age, the other, a
brother, five years younger. Corn was a dolar a bushel in Missouri, and the fact
that the boys had narrow tracked wagons was evidence that they came from a free
State, and the further fact that they were going to Kansas, made it very evident
that they were going there to help make Kansas a free State. Therefore the
Missourians would neither give them information nor sell them corn. However, it
was only necessary to make their wishes known to the slaves along the route, and
they were abundantly supplied with chickens, hams and corn.

  They crossed the Missouri river at Westport Landing—Kansas City had not yet
happened. There they met one Amos Fuller, who, like themselves, had no
particular place in view other than Kansas. So they followed the trend of
immigration, and the best road leading into Kansas being the old Santa Fe Trail,
the boys naturally followed it, with their new acquaintance, Fuller, past the
site of Olathe, which, at that time was as yet unbroken prairie, whose tall
blue-stem on its billowy surface nodded back a welcome. The coyote scampered
across the plain, an occasional deer, scared from its noonday rest, might be
seen fleeing to cover and wild turkeys came into the trail and trotted along
behind the wagons in quest of food.

  The caravan camped one night at Gardner, and O. B. Gardner, the man after whom
the town was named, offered to locate as many as cared to locate in Johnson
county. Accepting his offer, the boys and their friend Fuller were located on
claims southeast from that town. The first summer was spent in improving the
claim, building the cabin and breaking prairie. The price received by the boys
for plowing fire guards and breaking sod on new claims was $5 for a single acre,
and larger tracts were broken for $4.

  Some men planted sod-corn the first year, and it grew nicely, but the Indian
ponies, belonging to the Shawnee Indians, which roamed over the country by
hundreds, preferred the green corn to the dry grass, and ate it. The winter of
'57-8 was spent mauling rails and posts on Bull creek, with which to fence the
claims. The older one of the two boys cast his first vote in '58, for the
Topeka, or Free State, constitution. A pony on each claim was almost
indispensable and the only ones the Indians would sell were the ones that had
been spoiled and had whipped the Indian out. Such ponies could be bought for
$65; well-broke ponies sold for from $85 to $125. Having bought one pony for
$65, and sold him for $85, it occurred to the boys that some money could be made
in that way, so during the summer several ponies were bought and sold for a good
profit, and others were broke to ride, for $5 each. The Indian would say: "Pony,
heap bad, kill white man, Indian no can ride him."

  The father of the boys, with the family, came during the fall of '57-During
the fall of '58 the older of the two boys, with three men from Douglass county,
went buffalo hunting in the central part of the State. While slipping up on a
herd of buffalo, on Cow creek, on the present site of Hutchinson, the body of a
white man was found, in a patch of sunflowers. He appeared to have been murdered
by the Indians. Nothing was found on the body by which it could be identified.

  In the spring of '59, the boys entered the employ of Majors Russell & Waddle,
a firm then freighting across the plains, for there were no railroads west of
the Mississippi river. The first trip for the boys was from Ft. Leavenworth to
Ft. Laramie. A wagon train consisted of twenty-five wagons, loaded with freight,
and one called the mess wagon, loaded with food and clothing for the men. The
wagons were drawn by six yoke of oxen to the wagon or 312 head of oxen to the
train, and thirty-two men were a full company. The train, when loaded, traveled
from fifteen to eighteen miles a day, and when coming back, empty, traveled
about twenty-five miles. For fuel for campfires the men depended entirely on
buffalo chips. They hung sacks on the sides and under their wagons, and gathered
fuel as they traveled, so that when rain came there was always a supply of dry
fuel on hand. At one time, when traveling along the south fork of the Platte
river, in Nebraska, they came upon a tract of ground, 100 miles from any timber,
a prairie country, but covered with pine knots, the pine logs having decayed,
leaving only the knots. How they came there is a mystery.

  The cattle subsisted entirely on the grass, grazing, watched by four herders
at night, though when in an Indian country, or during a storm, the whole force
of men was kept on duty. During the spring and fall of the year the train
encountered numerous herds of buffalo. And sometimes the herds were so large
that it was necessary to park the wagons "V" shaped, with the point of the "V"
facing the herd, the cattle kept in the wagon corral. Enough buffaloes were shot
to make them divide and go right and left of the wagons, and to look over the
herd, it looked possible to walk on the backs of buffalo for miles. Such herds
were sometimes two or three days in passing. The second trip was from Ft.
Leavenworth to Ft. Kearney, the third from Leavenworth to Salt Lake City, each
time coming back empty. The fourth trip across the plains was in i860, the year
of the drought, as often referred to, in Kansas. This time the train loaded and
started from Westport, for Santa Fe, New Mexico. At Bent's Fort, afterwards
called Ft. Lyons, when the train reached there, it was learned that the place
had been surrounded for some time by the Indians, who had been very bad during
the summer. A man from the fort had been sent to Pawnee Fork, for troops. He
thought, by leaving in the night, he could get away and the Indians would not
follow him, but they did. He rode all night and at daylight hid himself and
horse in a clump of willows, on the bank of the Arkansas river, to rest, during
the day, having ridden forty miles from the fort. He was tired and soon fell to
sleep. When he awoke, several Indians were between him and his horse; he had
left his two revolvers in the holsters on his saddle. They shot him full of
arrows, killed him, as they supposed, scalped, and "left him. Sometime after
they had left him he came to life. After many efforts he was able to rise and
crawl on hands and knees to the water where he bathed, drank, and after many
days crawled back the forty miles to the fort, where, when the train reached
there, he was being doctored by an Indian squaw, with herbs and roots. His
wounds healed and he came back to the states with the train, on its return trip.
The last trip across the plains was made in i860, when the. firm loaded the
train with general merchandise, for miners, then mining gold and silver in
southern Colorado. Prior to this time, only supplies for the fort were
freighted, and this last trip bankrupted the company. The train was snowed in in
the Ratton Pass, in the Trinidad mountains, the cattle were brought out and the
train taken to its destination, the with the wagons to guard them and subsist on
bacon, deer meat, bear meat, Mexican beans and Taos flour. About June, of the
next year, the cattle were brought out and the train taken to its destination.
The goods sold and the train returned to the states. Immediately upon the return
to the states, the 3rounger of the two boys, first mentioned, enlisted in the
Second Regiment, Kansas infant^. During the winter in the mountains, time was
spent in hunting and exploring. An Indian burying ground was found a few miles
from the camp. The bodies were wrapped in the skins of deer and buffalo and
lashed in the tops of small cedar trees.

  On nearing Peacock's ranch, on the last trip out, it was seen that the ranch
was in ruins; a party was seen leaving in an opposite direction, as the train
appeared. Old Setank, a Kiowa Indian chief, with Mexican Joe, his interpreter,
and a party of Indians, rode to the ranch and asked Peacock to go up on his
dugout roof and see if any Government troops were in sight, and while looking,
they shot him, scalped him, and killed and scalped four others. There was one
sick man in a room off from the main building, with a buffalo robe hung over the
door. The Indians thought he might have smallpox and left him alone, but set
fire to the house, thinking to burn him or kill him as he came out. The train,
approaching, scared the Indians away and the sick man crawled out.

  After coming home from the last trip, the older of the boys re-fenced the
farm, which had been run over by prairie fires, took care of the small harvest
and enlisted in the Twelfth Kansas and served three years. Both of the boys came
home from the war, settled on their farms in Johnson county, married, reared
families and are "standing up for Kansas."

  The two boys whose experience in the early days is so graphically described
above, are George Thorne, of Gardner, and Rufus Thorne, who settled at Spring
Hill and later at La Cygne, both of whom are well known to the people of this
county.

  The above article is from the pen of J. R. Thorne, of Olathe.

FIFTY YEARS AFTER.
(By J. B. Mahaffie.)

  In May, 1857, I sold my farm of 300 acres, in Jasper county, Indiana, for
$4,400. Much had been said about the border war in Kansas, in 1856, and in the
early summer of 1857, in company with three other men, I started in a wagon from
Indiana for Kansas Territory. We went to Lawrence, to see what had been done
there. We found everything torn up, but the Free State men had come off
victorious. From Lawrence we went to Hickory Point, north of Lawrence, where
there had been a fight between the Missourians, under Capt. John Evans, and the
Free State men. There was a cannon ball in the rotten end of a hickory login the
old log fort. Jake Wright, one of our party, offered a dollar for the cannon
ball, but the offer was refused. We offered $20 for it, but could not get it.

  We tried to take claims in Leavenworth, Douglas and Johnson counties, but
failed as the Missourians had the land all taken. We then started back to
Indiana. At Westport, we sold our team and took a train and went back home to
northwest  Indiana. This was in June.

  From what I had seen of the territory, I knew it was a fine country and we
prepared to return. I wrote to William Dixon, my brother's brother-in-law, at
Independence, Mo. I took my family along on this trip and we started with four
teams. I had three teams of horses, two wagons and a carriage, and James Welsh
had one team. We made Independence our objective point. After we reached
Independence I was offered a farm of 160 acres, with orchard, dwelling house,
and other improvements for $2,000. This was the battlefield of the Little Blue.
I bought between twenty and thirty acres of corn for $100. We rigged up four
teams. We could get no claims in Johnson county.

  Jim Welsh, Ben Davis and myself, took two loads of corn and started for the
Neosho, where Dixon's people had settled. Our map only went to the State line,
one-half mile west of Westport, and from there we followed the Santa Fe Trail.
We peddled the corn out at two and three cents an ear before we reached
Burlington. When we got to Dixon's neighborhood, they met us and we got claims.
We then started back to Missouri for my family, who were still at Independence,
with the other two wagons. We gathered the corn I had bought and I had 1,100
bushels of the finest corn I ever saw.

  We started for the Neosho with four teams. We had three loads of corn, and
Billy drove the three cows. We reached Olathe, and met a man named Wood. He said
to stop here and not go to the Neosho. He had just hauled some water here (there
was no water in Olathe), and he told us that he would give us a load of wood and
water if we would stop. We drove over towards the west side of the square to
camp. There was a little shoe shop near where Moll's blacksmith shop now is. We
had just passed the shop when my wife said: "That is John McKaig standing in the
door, go back." I lifted the curtain of the carriage and cried: "Oh, John." He
jumped and ran to us. He got in with us and we went to Wood's house, where he
was staying". We had a sick child and Jonathan Millikan kindly gave us the use
of their house till we bought a house. We had provisions enough with us to do us
a year. This was in November.

  We reached Olathe on Tuesday, and on Sunday, Whisky Jones came up from
Independence, and seeing the four teams and the cows, wanted to know how many
families there were of us. I told him there was only one family, and that we had
two girls and three boys.

  He had a house, not far from the Avenue Hotel, which he wanted to sell to me
for $1,200. I told him I would not buy. He insisted on making an offer. Dr.
Barton came up and said to make him an offer. I then said that I would make him
an offer if he would not get mad. Isom Davis came to me and told me that Jones
owed a note at the bank in Westport, for $200, which would be due the next
morning. That he must have the money, and that I could buy the house at my own
price. I took out some gold pieces and showed Jones and told him that was the
only kind of money I had and that I had but little of that. I took a piece of
board and wrote down $200 in gold and a land warrant for 160 acres, which was
$200 more, making $400 for the house and three lots. And I was to have $100
worth of lots to be selected later, to put other buildings on, and to be paid
for in one year, without interest. The offer was accepted, and Jones and Barton
went to draw up the papers. I demanded that the papers should be signed by S. F.
Hill, the president of the town company. It was the custom to treat everybody,
when a lot was sold, and Barton wanted me to raise the price $50. When I
refused, he asked me for $5 to treat with, but I would not pay it. We went to S.
F. Hill's, on the west side of the square, to have the papers signed. Hill
refused to allow them to treat there, and the crowd adjourned to Turpin's Hotel.
This was all on Sunday. Before this, I had been to Collins' mill and bought the
lumber for a stable. About 11 o'clock that night, we started with our teams for
the lumber. Another man went for the poles for the stable, and by Monday night
we had it up, ready for use.

  McKaig and Wood had promised us claims. They said if we could not get claims
they would give us theirs, and jump some of the claims of the Missourians, as
that would give them an excuse to shoot at a Missourian.

  When I came to Olathe, the county business was done here, but the county seat
was afterwards established at Shawnee.

  I went to Westport to get a load of corn, and in one of the business houses
there I saw some maps of Johnson county. They were about two feet square and had
been drawn by young Gunn, the son of the map publisher. They were quite
accurate, showing Olathe near the center of the county, with Shawnee,
Monticello, Gardner and Spring Hill around near the borders of the county, and
the location of the timber streams, etc. I bought one for fifty cents and when I
got back to Olathe, took it into Turpin's Hotel and showed it to the crowd.
Everybody wanted to buy it. I refused to sell, telling them that I only paid
fifty cents for it, but wanted to keep it. I afterwards sold it for $2.50 to a
man who insisted on having it. I tried to get another at Westport, but was
unable to do so.

  I was thirty-eight years old when I came to Johnson county.

REMINISCENCES.
(By J. H. Blake.)

  I shall not try to tell you much about the early history of Johnson county. I
come before you to tell you that I am still alive, a physical confutation of the
theory of the survival of the fittest; for whilst many strong, hale, hearty
comrades of early days have long since gone to their eternal home, I, much to my
own and the surprise of others, am still with you, and have no notion to leave
you till my time comes to pass on. The early history of Johnson county has been
often told and will be told again when these young men and boys grow old (and
young ladies, too, if they ever grow old) much better than I can tell you.

  Fifty years ago, late one cold afternoon, of March 7, 1857, I landed in
Johnson county, Kansas, and slept that night at Cyprian Choteau's. who lived
just northeast of Gum Springs, the county seat of said county. The next night I
spent at the home of a man by the name of Dyche, who lived just across the
border in Missouri, and the third night, with Sam Cornatzer, living about a mile
west of Gum Springs, and with whom I boarded until the county seat was moved the
first time to Olathe, moved illegally, as it afterwards appeared. During my stay
at Cornatzer's, I made the acquaintance of the two Choteaus, Charles Bluejacket,
Rev. Charles Boles, who preached for the Shawnee Indians, Donaldson, who lived
at the Indian Council House, Isaac Parish, who was the first sheriff of Johnson
county, Alex Johnson, William Fisher, Jr., and many others, all of whom have
since passed to the happy hunting grounds.

  Soon after my advent into this county, I received the appointment of county
clerk and ex-officio register of deeds, the two offices then being one.

  The first meeting of the county commissioners was at Gum Springs, in a log
house, used by the Shawnee Indians, as a meeting house, on September 7, 1857,
and organized as a county board. The board consisted of J. T. Ector and William
Fisher, Jr., as members and J. P. Campbell, probate judge, as president of the
board; Isaac Parish was the first sheriff and Cosgrove next. At this meeting, if
my memory serves me right, the several townships were organized and metes and
bounds established, much as they now stand. I don't remember what other, if any,
business they transacted, except to vote themselves, sheriff and clerk, pay for
their arduous duty. I thereupon issued the first piece of county scrip, written
out on foolscap, that ever circulated in Johnson county. I wish I had a piece of
that scrip now. It would be a souvenir of early days, worth keeping. I traded my
piece of it to Pat Cosgrove for State scrip.

  Some time that summer, by act of bogus legislature, the county seat was moved
to Olathe, and afterwards, I believe, in May, 1858, moved back to Gum Springs.
In the meantime an election was held and the following county officers elected,
viz: John T. Barton, treasurer; Pat Cosgrove, sheriff; James Ritch, of
Monticello, county clerk; Jonathan Gore, prosecuting attorney; J. P. Campbell,
probate judge, and J. H. Blake, register of deeds. Ritch appointed S. B. Myrick
deputy county clerk. Myrick was elected to that office at the next election for
county offices.

  Olathe, having won the prize at an election, for county seat, the county
offices were all moved back to Olathe, late in the fall of 1858.

A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW.
(By Wm. Johnson.)

  The general aspect of the country was prairie, with skirts of timber on the
streams, with nothing fenced or in cultivation, outside of the properties of the
three missions, excepting now and then a small field of a few acres, occupied
either by a squaw man or an Indian, most likely the former.

  In the part of the county of which I want to speak, the northeast part, was
Brush creek, which crosses the State line south of Fifty-second Street, with two
prongs, one of which heads west of the Methodist mission and the other drains
the country around Overland Park. Turkey creek, along which the Frisco railroad
runs, crosses from Johnson into Wyandotte county, at Rosedale, and Indian creek,
showing its timber on the south.

  Except for skirts of timber, along the streams varying in width, all of the
balance was prairie, of which none was fenced, and on which there was not a house.

  Traversing the county were two main roads, leading out of Westport. The Fort
Leavenworth, or military road, led west from the old Harris House in Westport,
crossing the State line near Forty-fifth Street, thence in a southwesterly
direction, leaving the Capt. Joe Parks place half a mile to the south, the
Methodist mission three-quarters of a mile in the same direction, the Baptist
mission a quarter of a mile to the north, and the Quaker mission a quarter of a
mile to the south, crossing Turkey creek, and on to the old Shawnee church,
where the town of Shawnee now is, then diverging to the northwest, and crossing
the Kaw river, or what was then known as Tibelo's Ferry, near Bonner Springs.
Said Tibelo was a bow-legged Delaware Indian.

  The other road, known as the Santa Fe road, led south from the Harris House,
crossing Brush creek, and up a long rocky hill, following what is now known as
Wornall road, as far as the Armon place, then taking a westerly direction to the
State line which was crossed at Marmian's blacksmith shop, now the Hahn place,
keeping along what was then called the Santa Fe ridge, in a southwesterly
direction, passing about three-quarters of a mile south of Overland Park and in
the same general direction, passing about two miles south and east of Olathe.

  Of the places of historical interest of that time was the Capt. Joe Parks
place, a quarter of a mile from the State line. Captain Parks was a chief of the
Shawnees, who conducted a part of the tribe to this county from Ohio, in 1832,
and remained chief until his death.

  The Methodist mission, which consisted of three brick buildings, still
standing, about twelve of the minor buildings have been torn down, built from
1839 to 1845, is half a mile south and three-quarters of a mile west of the
Parks place. These houses were put up by my father, who was the superintendent
of the mission at that time. The money was furnished by the United States
Government, and the work done under the superintendence of the Methodist church.
The brick was burnt on the ground and the lumber sawed from wood on Brush creek.
The mission was conducted and supported by the Government and church, jointly.
It was at this mission where the first legisature of Kansas territory was held,
in 1855, haying adjourned from Pawnee to this place, it being the only place in
the territory that could furnish accommodations sufficient for State officers
and halls to meet. They met here during the yacation of the school. The State
officers remained here about a year, I think. Most of the members boarded in
Westport, Mo. There was a continual string of hacks, running between West-port
and the mission. Two miles west and half a mile north was the Baptist mission.
At the time of which I am now speaking, it was superintended by a man named
Barker, supported by the Baptist church.

  From the Baptist to the Quaker mission was about a mile and a half southwest.
The Quaker mission, about this time, was superintended by Mr. Hadley, the father
of Captain Iladley, with whom the majority of the older settlers of this county
are well acquainted. This mission was also supported exclusively by its church.

  On the same road in the present limits of Merriam, was a tract of land, from
which the timber had been burned, some of the stumps being twenty feet high,
which was always called "the Mormon battle ground," for what reason I am unable
to say.

  The next point of interest was the old Shawnee church, where services were
held for the Indians. This church was beside the Shawnee graveyard, and was
constructed of logs, two logs in length, and presided over by a white preacher,
who preached in the English language, being interpreted by an Indian, who stood
by him in the pulpit. The place of interpreter was filled most of the time by
Charles Bluejacket.

  The church was also used as a place to pay the Shawnee Indians their annual
annuity, from the Government, and as I recollect it, quite an interesting scene.
The agent and his assistants were seated at a table, just inside the door. The
head of the Indian family would step up to the table to be identified. The agent
would turn to the roll, ascertain how many there were and make the payment
outside the building. In a half-circle, facing the door, were a lot of tables,
behind which were seated the Missouri merchants, who had sold the Indians goods
on credit, for the past year, and as he came out with his money, they would call
him to their table, present his account and try to get him to pay it, and it was
astonishing how little English some of those Indians could understand, although
other times they could understand anything said to them.

  The next, and last place, of which I will speak, is the Shawnee council house
which was located near the home of Bill Donaldson, the blacksmith of the
Shawnees. The place is now in the grounds of the Elm Ridge Golf Club, and was
formerly the Reme Canen place. In the council house was conducted all the legal
business of the Shawnee tribe.

  The tribe was divided into a number of bands, at the head of each was a chief,
who constituted the council, presided over by the head chief of the tribe.

  These places were the only houses along the road. Scattered through the timber
along the creeks were the cabins of the Indians.

YEAGER RAID INCIDENTS.
(By D. Hubbard.)

  Among the many important and exciting events of the early years of the war,
which have held the attention of the loyal people of Kansas, by their tales of
suffering and endurance, of fire and blood, there may be some interest accorded
to one of the minor events, which filled those trying times. The following
account of the return of Dick Yeager's band to Missouri is gathered from
authentic sources for the purpose of adding to the history making of Kansas.

  The writer was then living in Marion, Douglass county, Kansas, seventeen miles
southwest of Lawrence, and on the old Santa Fe Trail, being engaged in farming
and running a small store, postoffice and stage stand. His family consisted of
his wife and an infant daughter, less than one year old, and there was living,
with him, Henry Waters and wife and a daughter about six years of age. Mr.
Waters now resides at Iola, Kan.

  The summer of 1862 had been filled with raids, by Quantrill and his men, upon
the towns along the border, including Gardner, Olathe and Shawnee, burning and
destroying property and killing many Union men. This had aroused the public
feeling to a high pitch, and was the cause of Governor Robinson organizing a
home guard of militia. In Douglass county the three townships, through which the
Santa Fe Trail ran, Palmyra, Willow Springs and Marion, each organized a
company. The writer was the captain of the one in Marion, Fortunatus Gleason was
its first lieutenant and William Baldwin was its second lieutenant, the latter
of whom is still living near Overbrook, in Osage county. It was composed of
about thirty men, furnished with arms and ammunition by the State, and was
called out several times during the year 1862, but each time upon a false alarm.

  In the month of May, 1863, as soon as the grass was sufficient for grazing
their horses, a considerable number of Quantrill's men, under the command of
Dick Yeager, came west on the trail in squads of twos or threes, so as not to be
observed. This was the same man who was Quantill's lieutenant at the Lawrence
raid the following August, where he won, with his comrades, a name of undying
infamy. These men congregated near Council Grove, Morris county, and there went
into camp. It has never been known to history just what was the real object in
making this movement. Some have suggested that it was their intention to
organize a raid in New Mexico. Others believed that they were bent upon plunder
and destruction among the interior towns of the State. Whatever their purpose,
they were evidently foiled by the United States soldiers stationed in the vicinity.

  The following is furnished by John Maloy, county attorney of Morris county,
and written seventeen years ago, as a part of what he is preparing for a history
of that county:

  "With all of their military preparations, our people were unable to prevent
guerillas from making incursions into our neighborhood. On May 4, 1863, Dick
Yeager's band of Missouri guerillas encamped on the General Custer farm, now
owned by M. K. Sample, near Council Grove and after insulting and threatening
the lives of some of our best citizens, a portion of them, some ten or twelve in
number, proceeded on the following day, to Diamond Springs, and about 12 o'clock
at night, three of them rode up to the store of Augustus Howell, and without any
ceremony, shot him to death. His wife was also shot, but recovered, and
afterwards married a Mr. Strokes, of Chase county. During this excitement
Captain Rowell, of Colorado, was stationed at Council Grove, to protect the
people of the county and to guard the mails and merchants, as well as the Santa
Fe trains."

  Yeager rode to Dr. J. H. Bradford's office and had a tooth pulled. He was
visited in his camp soon after he came by M. Conn, now a resident of Kansas
City, then of Council Grove, where he remained for some time. Many criticised
the visit as an act of disloyalty, without inquiring into the object of his
visit. He went to prevail on Yeager not to burn the town, and succeeded in his
mission, which was quite up to any reasonable standard of loyalty. He had known
Yeager well in the years before the war, as a freighter on the Santa Fe route.
They had been friends, which was a most lucky thing for Council Grove. 

  Thirteen of their number started back on the eighth day of May, over the
trail, and under the lead of Yeager. Nothing is known of their movements or
doings until reaching Rock Springs, late in the afternoon, near the line between
Osage and Douglas counties. At that time there was a stage stand, formerly kept
by a man by the name of Walters, but the name of the proprietor at that time I
do not remember. A soldier by the name of George N. Sabin, of Company K,
Eleventh regiment, Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, was spending the night there. He
had been visiting home on a furlough, and was then on his way to his regiment at
Fort Scott. Over a dozen bullets were his fate. The next morning he was buried
by the neighbors, on the open prairie.

  The family of this soldier lived near Auburn, Shawnee county. The widow could
learn nothing of his fate, and continued in ignorance of the circumstances of
his death until two years ago, when, by a most remarkable chain of
circumstances, the writer's daughter became acquainted with the soldier's
daughter, at Salt Lake City, Utah. The soldier's widow then, for the first time,
learned the facts surrounding her husband's death.

  The same evening the bushwhackers shot Sabin they arrived at my home, seven
miles farther east. Mr. Waters came in about dusk and said that it was reported
that the bushwhackers were at some point west of us, committing depredations.
The report was treated lightly, by us all, and we sat down to supper. The
daughter of Mrs. Waters soon came running and called out that a lot of horsemen
were coming down the road. They came to the door, where I met them and was
seized. searched and questioned, as to my politics, and the State I came from.
The answers not being satisfactory to them, Yeager gave the order to shoot.
Three of them obeyed the order. One bullet went through my lungs, the other two
missed, they being less than ten feet away. After going through the house and
taking what they wanted, and taking a horse from the stable, they left,
following the trail east. Among other things, they took Mr. Water's pocketbook.
Mrs. Waters asked the privilege of taking out some valuable papers, and they
allowed her to select some of the most valuable papers.

  They passed through Baldwin without molesting anybody. At Black Jack, four
miles further east, they met the Santa Fe stage, in which, among others, was
ex-Sheriff Jones (appointed the first sheriff of Douglas county by the bogus
legislature of Shawnee mission, Johnson county), who was on his way to his home,
then in New Mexico. The passengers were all relieved of their money and watches,
even the notorious Sheriff Jones; they did not spare nor stop to inquire as to
his politics.

  From information furnished by George W. Cramer, now of Paola, Kan., who was
living with his father, A. Cramer, who kept the Stone Hotel, at Gardner, Johnson
county, I learned that at some time past midnight, Yeager's band reached
Gardner. They first quietly took Garret Rhue, afterwards representative in the
legislature from that county, who was express agent, and made him prisoner. They
took from him an express package containing $200, then made him go with them to
the hotel and get the hotel keeper, A. Cramer, to open the door, saying that
there were some men who wanted to stay all night. The door opened, they rushed
in and made Mr. Cramer prisoner at the point of their revolvers, and ordered him
to show them where the other men were. They were taken up stairs into the room
where G. W. Cramer and Ben Francis were sound asleep. They jerked them both out
of bed and demanded their money and clothes. Francis answered that the clothes
they saw there were all he had. They answered that they knew better, and that he
must have better clothes, and ordered him to show them his trunk, which he did.
They smashed it in with their feet, and not finding what they expected, said
they would shoot him anyway. Francis replied the clothes were good enough for
bushwhackers. They acted on his suggestion and gathered up all the clothes, but
did not shoot him.

  The men were all taken out into the street under guard, while a part of the
gang took Mr. Cramer to the stables and made him get out his best horses, which
they appropriated. Then they marched him to the front of the house and ordered
the command to fall in line. It was thought by all that he was then to be shot.
But the command was given orders to march and they filed out of town.

  This is the last that is known of the Yeager raid.


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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