Shawnee County KS Archives History - Books .....Chapter XI 1905
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Book Title: History Of Shawnee County, Kansas

CHAPTER XI.

Dividing the Town-Site-The First Survey-Transactions in December, 1854-Title
Acquired by Means of an Indian Warrant-Claim Jumping, and Rival Town
Organisations-How Topeka Was Named, and Its Significance-The Street and Avenue
Plan-Early Buildings and Schools.

    Although the agreement to erect a town on the section of land relinquished
by Messrs. Dickey, Davis, and Enoch and Jacob B. Chase was entered into on the
5th of December, 1854, the plans were not consummated until the 14th day of that
month. The agreement first entered into was in the following form:

    "We, the undersigned, agree that we will proceed to select and stake out
claims in the vicinity of the dwelling house erected by M. C. Dickey, J. B.
Chase, Enoch Chase and George Davis, situated near the Kansas River, to be
disposed of as follows, namely: One and a half miles square shall be surveyed
for a town-site. Four claims are to be selected by M. C. Dickey, J. B. Chase,
Enoch Chase and George Davis, respectively, and the remainder to be assigned by
lot when fifteen or more persons are on the ground and ready for a drawing. The
town shall be divided into fifty shares, and the lots apportioned among the
stockholders by lot, from time to time, as the association may direct,
reserving, however, one-sixth of the lots of the town, to be donated to such
persons as will improve them as directed by the association, and also one-sixth
to be donated to the Emigrant Aid Company, of Massachusetts, as a consideration
for the erection of a mill, a school house, receiving house, etc. Moreover, we
agree, that the timber and wood on our claims may be used by any member of the
association for his own improvement for one year, provided that no person shall
take more than four thousand feet of timber, board measure, and six cords of
wood, except from his own claim.

    "Signed: C. K. Hollidiy, F. W. Giles, Daniel H. Horne, George Davis, Enoch
Chase, J. B. Chase, M. C. Dickey, C. Robinson, L. G. Cleveland. Dated: Kansas
Territory, December 5, 1854."

OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION.

    Further articles of association were adopted December 14th, and the
following officers were elected December 18th: President, Cyrus K. Holliday;
vice-president, Enoch Chase; secretary, William C. Linaker; treasurer, Fry W.
Giles; trustees,-Milton C. Dickey, Jacob B. Chase, Thomas G. Thornton, Loring G.
Cleveland and Daniel H. Horne.

    The original four settlers who had camped upon the town-site for preemption
purposes, and had surrendered the same to the town company, selected
compensatory claims in the following order: Jacob B. Chase,-the northwest
quarter of section 6, township 12, range 16; Milton C. Dickey,-the northeast
quarter of section 1, township 12, range 15; Enoch Chase,-the northwest quarter
of section 1, township 12, range 15; and George Davis,-the northeast quarter of
section 2, township 12, range 15, according to the subsequent government survey.
A preliminary survey for lot purposes was made by Fry W. Giles, Cyrus K.
Holliday, Daniel H. Horne and Enoch Chase. They had a cheap compass and two
pieces of rope, about four rods each in length, which had been used to tie boxes
and bales of supplies. Holliday and Giles held one of the ropes, and Enoch Chase
and Horne the other, Giles also handling the compass. With these crude
implements, and guided by the shining sun and a fire on the distant prairie, the
pioneer surveying party put in an entire day running the lines of the embryo
city, which they decided should be enlarged to twice its original dimensions.
The two pairs of amateur engineers were often two miles distant from each other
on the open prairie, and it is probable that their survey showed a still greater
discrepancy in measurement, but it was the beginning of the first division of
Topeka into business and residence lots.

SOME OF THE PIONEERS.

    In addition to the 10 persons forming the original town company, 17 other
men joined the colony on the 17th of December, and selected farm claims adjacent
to the city of great expectations. It has not been possible to obtain an
absolutely accurate list of the 17 accessions, but it is known that the
following persons were on the ground at the date named, and that most of them
participated in the second farm drawing: Abel F. Hartwell, James A. Hickey,
Harvey G. Young, Sidney J. Case, Philip Briggs, H. F. Root, George F. Crowe,
Thomas G. Thornton, Jonas E. Greenwood, Timothy McIntire, L. S. Long, J. F.
Merriam, C. N. Gray, Freeman R. Foster, John Armstrong, Edwin S. Dexter and
Robert L. Mitchell. Including the 10 original settlers, the 17 who arrived
December 17th, and William C. Linaker, who preceded them, there were just 28
individuals on the town-site on the December date referred to, most of them
being connected in some way with the town company. Of the entire number only two
are known to be living at this time: John Armstrong and James A. Hickey-both
residents of Topeka.

    By action of the association on December 11th it was decided that the limits
of the town should be diminished from the extravagant survey of Holliday, Giles,
et al, and made to cover territory only one and one-half miles square. A regular
survey was commenced about December 20th by A. D. Searle, of Lawrence, who used
as a basis the incomplete plat which had already been prepared. The Chase cabin
was the starting point, the first stake being placed near that structure, which
was designated as the southwest corner of First and Kansas avenues. The lines of
Kansas avenue were run from that point southward to Sixth avenue, and the lots
properly designated, fronting 75 feet on Kansas avenue, by 150 feet deep; and
from this plat an allotment was made on the 28th day of December to each of the
28 persons belonging to the Topeka association. As originally agreed upon, the
property of the association was to have been divided into 50 equal parts by
allotment, but on the 3rd of January, 1855, the number of shares was increased
to 100, with the understanding that the first 28 members of the association
should have, at each general division of lots that might be made, one additional
or "award" lot.

    Immediately after the allotment on the 28th of December, the surveys were
extended over other parts of town as detailed by Mr. Giles in his sketch of
Topeka. All of the tract lying between First and Sixth avenues, westward to
Topeka avenue and eastward to Jefferson street (then known as Eastern avenue),
was surveyed and platted into streets and avenues as at present existing, but
the squares formed by the crossings of the streets were designated as blocks,
and numbered from west to east, beginning with No. 5, at the intersection of
First and Topeka avenues, and ending with No. 60, at the intersection of Sixth
avenue and Jefferson street. Each block was divided into 12 lots, 75 by 150
feet, and numbered from the northeast corner southward, one to six, and from the
southwest corner northward, seven to 12. This plan was abandoned at a subsequent
period, after the completion of the entire survey, and the lot plan now in use
was adopted. The land embraced in the original town-site consisted of 684 acres,
being the whole of section 31 and the southeast fractional quarter of section
30, township 11, range 16.

PURCHASE OF THE INDIAN TITLE.

    For the purpose of acquiring title to the tract of land, the trustees
resorted to the expedient of purchasing what was known as a "land float"-a
government warrant authorizing a Pottawatomie Indian or his assigns to locate a
piece of unoccupied land in any district he might prefer. This right was
accorded to Isaiah Walker, and 34 other members of the Wyandotte Nation, by a
treaty made in 1842, and modified in 1854, and under one of its provisions a
patent from the government was thought to be immediately available. The Topeka
association purchased No. 20 of this series of floats from Isaiah Walker for the
sum of $1,200. In order to provide funds with which to pay for the float, the
association sold its surplus land above 640 acres to Franklin L. Crane, John
Ritchie and Cyrus K. Holliday for $1,300. It was not until February 14, 1859,
that the patent to Walker was issued, and Walker did not deed to the Topeka
association until July 1, 1859. These delays caused confusion and uncertainty in
disposing of lots. Rival claims were set up, and in one instance a rival town
company, called "The Valley Town Company," chartered by the Territorial
Legislature, undertook to assert its ownership of the town-site, a proceeding
which the Topeka association resisted vigorously and successfully. There was the
usual jumping of claims incident to the opening of a new town and country. One
such attempt was made at the corner of Eighth and Topeka avenues, where a
stranger unloaded material for a log house. A vigilance committee drove him away
on the night of January 8, 1855. In the spring of 1855 a man named Michael
Hummer, a preacher, set up a cabin on the homestead of A. A. Ward, having
induced Ward to sign a paper giving him a color of right. It soon developed that
Hummer's purpose was to start a rival town under the name of Fremont. He built a
cabin on First avenue, just east of the present D. L. Lakin home. Ward insisted
that he had been imposed upon, and upon receiving this explanation his friends
proceeded to Hummer's cabin and filed a protest. Hummer exhibited a document
which he claimed was a deed from Ward, and one of the party snatched the paper
from him and tore it into fragments. In the melee Hummer was knocked down by
Robert Edwards. Upon his revival, he was placed in a wagon with his wife and
other belongings and driven across the Shunganunga, southwest of Topeka, and
told to go his way in peace. Most of the disputes over titles were settled by
conveyances from Cyrus K. Holliday, as trustee of the Topeka association, and
these titles were subsequently confirmed by the District Court of Shawnee County.

NAMING THE NEW TOWN.

    The important question of bestowing a suitable name upon the city which was
to be erected around the Chase cabin was not taken up until the evening of
January 1, 1855, at a general meeting held in the cabin. It was discussed that
night and the following night, the deliberations resulting in the choice of
Topeka. Cyrus K. Holliday wanted to call it Webster, after the great orator and
satesman, but was overruled. Papan's Ferry was proposed, but rejected as being
too provincial, and Mid-Continent was too cumbersome. The suggestion of Topeka
came from Rev. S. Y. Lum, who said it was a new word, not to be found in any
dictionary, atlas or post office directory. All agreed that it was novel,
euphonious and appropriate. Its Indian flavor could not be questioned, and its
equal division of vowels and consonants gave it a tripping and cadent sound.
Topeka was born on the spot. There was no formal ceremony of christening, no
festal rites-Bacchus, Gambrinus and the goddess of hop tea had not yet
penetrated beyond the confines of the Missouri River, and the joint-keeper and
boot-legger were likewise unknown.

    The significance of the name "Topeka" has engaged the thoughtful attention
of philologists, linguists and nomenclaturists in all parts of the country. Col.
William A. Phillips, a Kansas correspondent of the New York Tribune in the
'50's, claimed that the word was synonymous with "Topheika," found in the
language of the Pottawatomie Indians, and meaning "mountain potato.'7 A
similarity to the Indian word "Tohopeka" was traced, until it was found that the
latter signified "barricade or fortification"-being so used by the
Choctaw-Muscogee Indians, and not applicable to the conditions in Kansas. Chief
White Plume, of the Kaw tribe of Indians, claimed that his people applied the
name "Topeka" to the principal stream of Kansas long before the government
designated it as the Kansas River. The name was so applied to the stream by the
aborigines on account of the vast quantity of wild potatoes which grew along its
banks, the full significance of the word being "the river upon whose banks grew
the wild potato plant." Prof. John B. Dunbar, erstwhile professor of languages
at Washburn College, maintains that the Kaw Indian name for the river was Kansa,
meaning "swift," although the Iowa and Omaha tribes may have referred to the
stream as Topeka River. Professor Dunbar, who went to the root of the subject,
gave the following analysis of the derivation and meaning of the word "Topeka:"

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORD.

    "It is made up of three words, common, with a slight dialectic variation,
with the languages of the Iowa, Omaha and Kansas or Kaw Indians. These words
are, to, a word meaning potato (the wild kind) pe, an adjective (shortened from
pekae) meaning good, and okae, a word meaning to dig. In the process of
composition the e of pe is dropped, or rather hardened to the consonant y,
making from the three words to-pyo-kae, which means literally, 'a good place to
dig potatoes.' In the language of the Iowa and Omaha tribes the word was applied
as a general term to the Kansas or Kaw River, or the valley along its course.
The historical origin of the application of the term was the fact that not
infrequently in the spring, when the supply of food fell short, the various
tribes of Indians resorted to this region, and for some weeks secured a scanty
sustenance by digging and eating the wild artichoke that abounded in certain
parts of the area named. The name of the city, therefore, very appropriately
perpetuates the most important aboriginal association connected with its
immediate vicinity."

    In harmony with these views, it may be added that in later years the entire
Kansas River Valley became one of the greatest potato producing sections in the
whole country, thus indicating the judgment and natural acumen of the untutored
savage. Even as early as the year i860 it is related that Cyrus K. Holliday, who
farmed a part of the site of Topeka, raised more potatoes in a single season
than he could gather with men who would consent to dig them "on the halves."
Potatoes are now shipped from Kansas Valley points by car-loads and train-loads
to all parts of the country, and the industry is growing year by year.

PLAN AND NAMES OF STREETS.

    In designating the streets of Topeka those running east and west were given
numbers, and those running north and south were named for the Presidents of the
United States, from Washington to Taylor. President Pierce was in office at the
time of this action, but he was in such disfavor with the Abolitionists of
Kansas that his name was ignored, and Fremont street substituted-Fremont street
finally gave way to Fillmore. A street was named for John Adams, but when John
Quincy Adams was reached in chronological order the name Quincy street was
substituted. The names of the Presidents were employed in regular order except
that the principal business street, intervening between Quincy and Jackson, was
called Kansas avenue, and the principal residence street, intervening between
Harrison and Tyler, was called Topeka avenue. Western avenue also intervened
between Taylor and Fillmore streets. Some of the wider thoroughfares running
east and west were designated as avenues instead of streets, notably Sixth and
Tenth avenues. Practically the same system of numbering and naming the streets
was continued in later years, with a few variations made necessary by peculiar
boundaries. Henry Clay was honored with a street, immediately preceding
Buchanan, and Lincoln follows Buchanan. Streets have been named for Grant,
Cleveland and Garfield, but not in regular order. Rutherford B. Hayes, Andrew
Johnson and Chester A. Arthur have not been recognized, and President Roosevelt
is on the waiting list. The numbered streets run up to 28, although the original
plat of the town stopped at 11th street. The total number of lots in the
original plat was 4,228. In 1905 the lots exceed 30,000 in number.

NEW ARRIVALS.

    During the winter of 1854-55 the colony of 28 Topekans was increased to 64,
by the arrival of 36 persons-30 males and six females. Early in the spring of
1855 another party of 42 arrived, known as the Robinson party. New cabins and
sod houses were built, and a few board shanties erected. One of the latter was a
boarding house built by A. W. Moore. Sidney J. Case built a log residence, with
a blacksmith shop in the rear. Another and longer cabin was constructed for
hotel purposes, with berths one above another, and called the Pioneer House.
Gradually the character of the buildings improved, as sawmills and brickyards
were established. In April, 1855, J. T. Jones built and opened a grocery store.
On the 13th of the same month the Farnsworth brothers commenced a stone building
on the west side of Kansas avenue, between Fourth and Fifth streets, which
afterwards became known as Constitution Hall. The stone for this building was
taken from a ravine back of the present Throop Hotel. Topeka was made a post
office in March, 1855, with Fry W. Giles as postmaster. The office was first
established in a log house belonging to Sidney J. Case, on the east side of
Quincy street, near Second, but was soon removed to a frame building on the
southeast corner of Kansas avenue and Fifth street. J. C. Gordon and Asaph Allen
started a store at No. 103 Kansas avenue in the summer of 1855. J. C. Miller
started the first brick house on the 18th of April of that year, near the corner
of Kansas and Sixth avenues. A little later Robert L. Mitchell opened a cabinet
shop at the northwest corner of Sixth and Harrison, afterwards the residence for
many years of William Marshall, and now the property of the Topeka Club. In
September, 1855, tnis was tne meeting place of the first delegate convention
looking to the formation of a constitution and State government. From that
convention sprang the Topeka constitutional convention.

PIONEER SCHOOLS.

    The first school was kept in a little house belonging to Dr. F. L. Crane,
situated on Madison street, just north of the present Lincoln School. The
teacher was Miss Sarah C. Harlan, niece of United States Senator Harlan, of
Iowa. Others of the early teachers were Miss Carrie Whiting (afterwards Mrs. L.
C. Wilmarth) and Miss Jennie Allen (afterwards Mrs. I. E. Perley). The first
public school building was erected by the New England Emigrant Aid Company in
the summer of 1857. It was built of brick, on the rear end of lots 145, 147 and
149, Harrison street, fronting on Fifth street, the room being 24 by 18 feet in
size. On these lots was afterwards built the present residences of Jacob Smith
and W. A. L. Thompson, and a part of the brick from the old school house went
into the construction of Mr. Smith's barn.

    Topeka continued to improve in the winter of 1855-56, and there was a great
change in the character of the buildings. The work of establishing roads,
ferries and bridges was enthusiastically commenced and vigorously prosecuted. In
the year 1856 the first three-story building, the Topeka House, was erected by
Walter Oakley. The Chase House, another three-story building, was erected in the
same year. Buildings were also constructed by Jeremiah Murphy, I. E. Perley, M.
K. Smith, E. C. K. Garvey, F. L. Crane and John Ritchie-the last named erecting
what was known as the Ritchie Block. In 1857 and 1858 there was still greater
activity in building and real estate transactions. There was a gratifying
increase of immigration, money became plentiful, and property advanced to high
figures. These conditions were maintained throughout the years 1859 and i860
except that the city's progress was impeded to some extent by the "border
ruffian" troubles, Indian uprisings and a protracted season of drought, from all
of which the State and city emerged triumphant.


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.


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