Shawnee County KS Archives History - Books .....Chapter IV 1905 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 25, 2006, 3:32 am Book Title: History Of Shawnee County, Kansas CHAPTER IV. Continuation of Township History—Sketches of Soldier, Tecumseh and Topeka Townships—Names of the Early Settlers—General Sherman's Pioneer Experience—Rival Towns and Their Promoters—Famous Farms and Their Owners—Present Day Conditions. The location of Soldier, Tecumseh and Topeka townships, and their relation to the city of Topeka, make it desirable that their history should be given in a special group, and a separate chapter. These townships are the most populous in the county, much of their history is confluent, and many of the persons whose names make up the early record were identified to some extent with all of the townships named. For convenience the same form will be preserved as in the preceding chapter. SOLDIER TOWNSHIP—This township was erected April 20, 1860, from territory added to Shawnee County on the north side of the river. One purpose of the addition was to preserve Topeka as the county-seat by making it a more central point in the county. The new territory was taken from Calhoun (now Jackson) County. Most of it was Kaw Indian land and was occupied only by the Indians and half-breeds down to 1848, except that there was a small band of French settlers in the locality as early as 1840. Among these were the Papan brothers, Joseph, Ahcan and Louis. Louis Catalon, a nephew of the Papans, joined them in 1848, and James McPherson came the same year. Fred Swice and George L. Young, both farmers, arrived in 1850. ARRIVALS IN THE '50's. New settlers in 1854 were James Kuykendall, John Cunningham, R. J. Fulton, H. D. McMeekin, Perry Fleshman, W. S. Kuykendall, John B. Chapman, D. Milne, James A. Gray, G. P. Dorris, J. M. Hand and Charles Tipton. These early settlers assisted in organizing Calhoun County, and some of them were the promoters of the town of Calhoun, the first county-seat. Calhoun County was originally named for John Calhoun, first Surveyor General of Kansas, but was changed to Jackson in 1858, in honor of Andrew Jackson, and the county-seat changed to Holton. In 1855 Soldier township gained the following settlers: Vincent Cohe, Samuel Lockhart, J. F. Callioz, E. Bollotte, T. Bruno, A. Colomb, E. Chambourniere, H. Roberti, Alme Malespine, J.. Seal, H. Seal, J. E. Thompson and Thomas Jenner. In 1856 the new-comers were Jacob Johnson, G. Cummings, J. M. Harding, Joseph Neiddaugh, J. W. Price, Ezekiel Marple and William Owen. William Tecumseh Sherman, afterwards Lieutenant General of the United States Army, was a settler in the township in 1859. At the instance of Hon. Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, he undertook the opening and management of a farm of 1,000 acres on Indian Creek, for the benefit of his grand-nephew, Henry Clark, and his grand-niece, Mrs. Walker, who joined him on the farm in the spring of that year. He fenced 100 acres and built a small frame house and a barn. He returned to Leavenworth in the fall of 1859 to resume his law business. Some of the Sherman farm buildings have been preserved as historic landmarks. Some of the persons identified with the county in later years were Rev. David Bartram, F. W. Fleischer, George W. Kistler, J. H. Miller, J. Q. A. Peyton, A. W. Pliley, W. W. Reed, Edward Sipes, John M. Wilkerson, Thomas M. James and Samuel J. Reader. A DESERTED CITY. The town of Indianola was started in the township in November, 1854, by H. D. McMeekin, who bought the site from Louis View, a half-breed Indian. The name of the town was borrowed from an Indianola in Texas. A rival town, called Delaware City, was started about the same time by J. Butler Chapman. During its brief existence, Chapman's town was known as Delaware City, Whitfield City, Kansopolis and Rochester, the last being the name finally settled upon it. One of the first school houses in the county was built at this point, and near it was one of the depots of John Brown's famous "Underground Railroad." The so-called depot was built in 1857 by William Owen, and was occupied for many years by Dr. Morrow. Rochester was too close to Indianola to thrive, and Indianola was killed by the building of the railroad three miles away. The Union Pacific Railroad runs along the southern boundary of the township; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe crosses the southeastern corner; and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific extends across the western part of the township, north from Topeka. On the latter line are the towns of Shorey and Elmont. Shorey has a population of 400 and Elmont 50. Kilmer is a small station on the Atchison road. TECUMSEH TOWNSHIP—This township formerly comprised all the territory in Shawnee County lying north of the Wakarusa River, this division being made September 14, 1855. By subsequent subdivisions it was reduced to a tract about six miles square, with Topeka on the west and Monmouth on the south, its northern boundary being the Kansas River, and its eastern boundary the county line of Douglas County. As an agricultural and fruit growing section, it is not surpassed in the whole State. BIRTH OF TECUMSEH. Col. Thomas N. Stinson was the first white man to settle in the township. He opened the first farm in 1852, although he did not occupy it until March 20, 1853. From 1848 he lived in another part of the county, where he was engaged as a trader among the Indians. He was married in 1850 to Miss Julia Bushman, and resided at Uniontown, later moving to the Burnett farm near Topeka, and thence to Tecumseh. Stinson had but few neighbors prior to 1854, when a party of men moved in from Missouri. Among them were J. K. Waysman, A. D. M. Hand, H. Walker, Albert Byler, Joshua Sartain and Nathaniel Hedrick, all on May 5, 1854. Another party came on June 1st of that year, including David Copeland, James Herron, Reuben Low, John Homer, Rev. J. B. Stateler, Thornton B. Hays and Francis Grassmuck. At different periods in the fall of the same year the following arrived: Robert Edwards, J. C. Niccum, Jehiel Tyler, D. Updegraff, John Morris, James W. Small, William Vaughn, B. Sublette, Dr. D. W. Hunter, Osburn Naylor, Rev. Charles Gordon, Jesse W. Stevenson, Judge Rush Elmore, Charles Stevenson and H. J. Strickler. Arriving in 1855 were: Eli Hopkins, W. Y. Roberts, W. A. Stewart, William Hook, S. Ripple, Joseph Weaver, Benjamin Newsom, Capt, E. Allen, J. Reed, Joseph Molton, William Riley, T. Strother, Jesse Rumsey, Joseph Allen, A. Lovelace, Adam Bowers, John Bowers, Gus Vaughn, Samuel Ackland, Isaac Roberts, H. Carmichael, C. C. Antrim, John Martin, W. O. Yeager, B. Fogle, Kenzie Stofield, V. Rush, Edward Hoagland, Eli Stofield, Rev. Edward Piper, Dr. Snow, J. W. Lacy, N. Shadley, William Shadley, Benjamin Castleman, A. Delap, A. Imes, Erastus Moffitt, Bennett A. Murphy, William Frost, R. Carmichael, Rev. Paul Shepard, A. D. Reed, John T. Lawrence, O. Moffitt, Thomas Campbell, James Ellis, William Ireland, John Scott, William Jones and Henry Caulfield. Mention should also be made of some of the later settlers in the township: Dr. William B. Brown, Peter Bunce, Joseph Burgess, John A. Campbell, J. P. Campbell. James H. Dunn, Joseph England, Thomas J. Faxon, John S. Griffing, E. H. Harrop. Dwight Jarvis, Harvey Lieurance, Isaac H. Milliken, Isaac Morris, W. A. Rankin, Alfred S. Roberts, Thomas D. Strong, Ralph Voorhees, Samuel B. Wade, William B. Wade, James Wottman, Luther Woodford and J. L. Wood. TECUMSEH'S BRIGHT PROSPECT. The town of Tecumseh is the oldest in the county, once the seat of the county government, the scene of many important events in the State's history and a strong candidate for the State capital. The name perpetuates that of the noted Shawnee Indian chief, who led his braves in the battle of Tippecanoe, and met death in the battle of the Thames. The Tecumseh townsite covered 80 acres taken from the Stinson farm and 240 acres pre-empted for town purposes. The survey was made August 15, 1854, by C. C. Spalding. Most of the men interested in the town, whose names follow, were from the south: Thomas N. Stinson, J. M. Hunter, Samuel H. Woodson, and Abram Comings, from Missouri; Rush Elmore and Albert Elmore, from Alabama; J. W. Whitfield, from Tennessee; S. W. Johnson, from Ohio; A. H. Reeder, Territorial Governor, from Pennsylvania; and Andrew J. Isaacks, Territorial Attorney General, from Louisiana. Governor Reeder was a frequent visitor at Colonel Stinson's home during his business trips up and down the valley. He was greatly impressed by the picturesque location and splendid surroundings of Tecumseh and took personal interest in advancing its claims as a business and residence point. It was supposed that the first Legislature would hold its session there, but Governor Reeder became so indignant over the criticisms passed upon his official acts by the people of Missouri that he decided to call the Legislature to meet in Pawnee, a point remote from sectional influences, where he was also interested in another town enterprise. His change of plan was a serious blow to Tecumseh in the matter of becoming the State capital. The Pro-Slavery men adjourned the Legislature to the Shawnee Manual Labor School and succeeded in locating the Territorial seat of government at Lecompton, midway between Lawrence and Topeka, the avowed purpose being to cripple the last named towns on account of their abolition proclivities. DECAY OF THE TOWN. For her future progress Tecumseh was forced to rely upon the temporary advantage of being the county-seat, and this soon precipitated a clash with Topeka, the Pro-Slavery faction supporting Tecumseh and the Free-State men standing by Topeka. Tecumseh was at the height of her prosperity in 1858, and stood a lusty rival of Topeka in all the arts of politics and trade. But Kansas and all her institutions were destined to be free, and this sentiment, coupled with the jealousy of other towns in the neighborhood, finally located the county-seat at Topeka. Tecumseh is now a gazetteer town of 150 inhabitants—a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Stanta Fe Railway. There is no other settlement of consequence in the township. In 1855 the town of Mairsville was started by Thomas Mairs. In the same" year the town of Washington was laid out by a company consisting of W. Y. Roberts, William Frost, William Riley, Joseph Molton and Capt. E. Allen. In 1856 Joseph Allen started the town of Kenamo. All three of them were close to Tecumseh, and none of them attained to a dignified size. TOPEKA TOWNSHIP—The territory comprising Topeka township belonged in 1855 to Yocum township, which then included all the territory in the country lying south of the Wakarusa River. The name Yocum was dropped February 23, 1857, when the county was subdivided into five townships, Topeka being one of them. Additional territory and later subdivisions gave it its present boundaries, from the Kansas River south to Williamsport, with Tecumseh on the east and Mission on the west—Soldier being the opposite township on the north side of the river. Clement Shattio, a Frenchman, was the first white settler in the township, coming from Uniontown, November 15, 1852. He purchased a farm on the south bank of the river one mile west of the present city of Topeka. The farm formerly belonged to Alexander Bushman, a half-breed Shawnee Indian. Shattio was born in St. Louis in the year 1800, and moved to Union-town in June, 1848, In 1850 he married Ann Davis, a colored woman, who was born in Palestine, Illinois, in 1817. Ten years later she was stolen from her parents and carried to Missouri, where she was several times sold as a slave. She bought her freedom in 1859, after taking up her residence in Kansas. SETTLERS IN TOPEKA TOWNSHIP. Later settlers arrived in the following order: Horatio Cox, May 5, 1854; Anthony Ward, June 1; Robert Matthews, July 15; J. Jondron, A. Berringer, Isaac Edwards, L. Bivard and D. Chilson, about July 25; Gilbert Billard, Charles Sardou and Fred Vascalders, August 28; John Long, Thomas Warren, J. R. Warren, H. McConnell and James McConnell, October 10. The Warrens, father and son, were from Kentucky. Thomas Warren, the elder, became 100 years of age in 1870, and visited the Kansas Legislature on his centennial birthday anniversary, receiving a special welcome at the hands of the Speaker pro tan, Hon. John Guthrie. Warren died in 1874, at the remarkable age of 104 years. William R. Boggs moved into the township August 14, 1854, and purchased the farm which is now the site of the Kansas State Hospital for the Insane. Following him came William Pickerell, October 17; Philip Briggs, October 20; John Parkinson, October 18; William Griffenstein, November 1; John T. Adams, Rev. Michael Hummer and Dr. Noble Barron, about November 15; John Armstrong, November 20; Enoch Chase, Jacob B. Chase, Milton C. Dickey and George Davis, November 29—this party settled on the farm land upon which the city of Topeka is located; Daniel H. Home, Fry W. Giles, Loring G. Cleveland, S. A. Clark, W. C. Linaker, Thomas G. Thornton, Jonas E. Greenwood, Cyrus K. Holliday and Timothy McIntire, December 4; James F. Merriam, December 7; James A. Hickey, December 12; L. S. Long, December 15; Freeman R. Foster and Robert L. Mitchell, December 20; Dr. S. E. Martin, December 25. S. J. Case, H. F. Root, C. N. Gray and G. F. Crowe also came in December. LATER ARRIVALS. Those who settled in the township in the year 1855, as nearly as can be determined, were the following: John Ritchie, J. C. Miller, W. W. Ross, J. C. Jordan, H. W. Curtis, Charles Farnsworth, L. W. Home, R. A. Randlett, O. C. Nichols, S. D. Conwell, B. F. Dawson, C. A. Sexton, Henry Cowles, John Perrin, Rev. Henry Burgess, Charles Frazier, C. A. Dexter, W. H. Weymouth, Daniel Say res, Ephraim Herriott, Horatio Fletcher, Samuel Herriott, Daniel Banta, H. Higgins, Johnston Thomas, King Smith, Antoine Bernier, H. Tyrrell, A. H. Barnard, Robert Todd, Dr. M. A. E. J. Campdoras, Henry Griffin, C. Durupt, Isaac Renfrew, J. Willetts, J. W. Jones, C. D. Howard, L. H. Wentworth, Robert Gilbert, D. Sheridan, James Goodrich, E. C. K. Garvey, F. L. Crane, James Chadwick, Dean Chadwick, C. C. Leonard, C. L. Terrill, Moses Dudley, J. Orcutt, William Scales, H. P. Waters, James G. Bunker, James McNamee, J. F. Cummins, Isaac Zimmerman, Loring Farnsworth, E. Seagraves, Abner Doane, A. M. Lewis, Guilford Dudley, John R. Lewis, George F. Boyd, D. Mintum, J. D. Clarkson, James Taggart, L. C. Wilmarth, A. G. Thompson, Gabriel Wright, J. C. Gordon, Asaph Allen, James Disney, Moses Hubbard, P. R. Hubbard, Eugene Dumez, P. O. O'Connor, E. S. Parker, Jesse Stone, O. H. Drinkwater, Samuel Hall, Leonard Wendell, A. F. Whiting, W. E. Bowker, S. N. Frasier, M. C. Martin, William P. Thompson, David H. Moore, W. W. Henderson, William Gibbons. M. K. Smith, A. F. Hartwell, David Smith, Charles L. Wilbur, G. B. French, E. Trask, August Roberts, H. C. Young, Nelson Young, James Cowles, R. M. Luce, F. T. Tucker, Richard Gustine, Henry P. Waters, Gerard C. Hooft, S. Lyford and W. W. Phillips. RIVAL TOWNS. Topeka, the county-seat and capital city, is located in Topeka township. No other city or town has ever been erected in the township, every attempt in that direction having proved a failure, or resulted in adding a suburb to the big city, as in the cases of Oakland, Seabrook, Auburndale and Potwin. Of the towns projected near Topeka at different periods, the following names are given as a matter of record, the places having long since faded from sight—almost from memory: Fremont, Paris, Washington, Council City, Glendale, Carthage, Kenamo and Mairsville. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS EDITED AND COMPILED BY JAMES L. KING TOPEKA, KANSAS "History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples" PUBLISHED BY RICHMOND & ARNOLD, GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, 1905. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/shawnee/history/1905/historyo/chapteri6nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ksfiles/ File size: 16.5 Kb