1912 Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas
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LUTELLUS BALDWIN
LUTELLUS BALDWIN was born in the State of Pa., and came to Barton County from that state in 1876. He was educated at the Washington and Jefferson College of Washington, Pa. He at first intended to take up the practice of law and studied to this end, but after his arrival in Kansas he gave most of his attention to work along educational lines and served Barton County as superintendent of schools for two terms, and afterwards taught school for a number of years. He finally grew interested in geology and made a most enviable reputation as a student of this science. He gave a great deal of time to the study of the rock formation of Kansas especially the Dakota sand stones and he has received most gratifying recognition from the Department of Geology at Washington, D. C. Mr. Baldwin is given credit for having been one of the first to agitate the subject of irrigation of the arid lands of the west and in the nineties wrote a great deal on the subject of irrigation for some of the leading newspapers of the country. It was a direct result of his call that the first irrigation convention to be held in the state convened at Great Bend in August, 1893. The result of this meeting and Mr. Baldwin's work afterwards had a great deal to do with the hurrying of the big irrigation projects that have since been completed in Kansas and other states. Mr. Baldwin has also made a study of soil formations and water supplies and his knowledge on these subjects makes his opinion on these matters worthy of great consideration. He is a member of the National Geographical Society, the headquarters of which are at Washington D. C. Mr. Baldwin was married in 1881 to Miss Martha Gunn and they reside in Great Bend at the present time. Mr. Baldwin is well known all over the state and especially in Barton County where he and his wife have taught school and in other ways helped in building up the county of Barton and city of Great Bend.
CHARLES ANDRESS
[IMAGE]CHARLES ANDRESS is one of the many many old timers of Barton County who left here and journeyed afar, but still retained a material interest in the county, and has made frequent trips back to look after his interests and renew the acquaintances formed in the early days. Although Mr. Andress has traveled all over the world, most of the time being engaged in the show business he has always owned land in Barton County and it was while here on one of his frequent trips that we got the information from which to make the article for this book. He was born in Brockville, Canada January 15, 1852—also his mother's birthday—and when Charles was two years of age his parents moved to Chesaning, Michigan, a lumber and shingle camp in Saginaw County. His father was a turner and cabinet maker by trade and he had a very strenuous time making both ends meet, and to make things worse after the family had been there about two years the elder Andress was injured in the machinery and died after three weeks of suffering. This left Mrs. Andress with five boys, the oldest not quite sixteen at that time and the youngest only two years and Charles about four years of age. The family was fourteen miles from the nearest railroad station and money was mighty hard to get. The country was sparsely settled, the nearest town being Owosso. We quote from Mr. Andress' interview:
"My mother certainly had a very hard time of it raising her boys and I well remember the many trials she went through to hold the family together. Why, I have known her to sit up all night to finish knitting a pair of socks so she could trade them for groceries the next morning to prepare our breakfast so we could go to school and as she could not buy shoes for us she would wrap our feet in cloth rags and send us to school and when we arrived at the school house we would take off the rags and lay them by the fire to dry out so we could have them ready for wearing home at night after school. The two older
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brothers of course helped all they could and as we were all more or less musically inclined we soon found considerable income from playing for country dances, but enough of this, for I know you are anxious to know how I started in the show business. I was always gifted with the power or knack of imitating birds and animals and doing different stunts in so-called ventriloquism, and in those days every hotel had a hall over head in which all dances and shows were given and the shows all traveled by stage or private conveyance, and in 1862 a magician came along by the name of Prof. Hertz, a foreigner, and offered my mother $10 a month if she would consent to my traveling with him and would send her the money in advance every month and would clothe me, etc., and as the two oldest brothers were now inlisted in the army she very much disliked to part with me but finally consented to let me go. Well I had been out with this magician nearly two years when he was taken sick and died in Pontiac, Michigan, and his wife soon left for England and left me to shift for myself. My two years schooling with him had advanced me very materially as he was a good violinist and we always played for a dance after the show and I was a good "fiddler" for a boy and he bought me a violin and made me a present of it, and this, with a fairly good suit of clothes, was all I possessed when Mrs Hertz left for England. I soon joined bands with an old minstrel performer by the name of Zeke Filliman who played a banjo and with him I used to play for dances in and around Pontiac until he went into retirement on a farm, which left me to shift as best I could for myself. It was then I organized my first show which consisted of a few tricks in magic, which I had learned from the professor, and my ventriloquist act. A set of cambric curtains and the "fiddle," and 500 little programs which I had printed in Lapeer, which cost me $3.50, and the outfit when packed consisted of a sack containing a small cambric curtain, some small tricks in magic and my talking figure. With this equipment in the sack which I carried over my shoulder, and my fiddle in one hand I would travel on foot from one place to another giving shows and occasionally playing for a dance after the show."
From this primitive beginning Mr. Andress by dint of hard work and careful management his possessions grew until he finally had gotten together a good opera house show, consisting of trained birds, dogs, monkeys, goats, ponies and other animals. In 1874 he decided to go to California with a little show. It was when he was making this trip that he came to Great Bend and put on a show. There being no opera house he got permission from the sheriff to show in the court house for four nights. He stretched a rope across the street from Allen's corner and gave an exhibition with the birds. One of the feathered creatures walked the rope wheeling in front of it another bird in a wheel barrow. Mr. Andress gave presents away at the inside performance and although times were very hard just at that time the show made a big success. This show will always be remembered by the old timers who were here at that time as having been one of the big events of the year. The show was a novelty for the town and was well patronized. At the hotel—the Old Drovers' Cottage—Mr. Andress was seated at the same table with Mrs. T. L. Stone whose husband had recently died. She told Mr. Andress that she would sell her farm which consisted of a homestead and timber claim of 320 acres with a granary and other improvements for about what the improvements cost, about $1000. Mr. Andress bought the property but it was only a few days when he began to realize that he had paid a good price, as he was beseiged on all sides by farmers who wanted to sell him their holdings on practically the same basis. One man who made an offer to Mr. Andress is best told in his own words:
"Are you the man who bought Widow Stone's property? Was asked by the farmer. I told him I was, and he remarked, that he would have done better by me had he seen me first, and when I asked him what he had for sale in the way of farm land, and he said he said he had a good quarter two miles nearer town than Mrs. Stone's with eighty acres in wheat, a small house and granary, etc. He said he had a good team of mules which he said cast him $150. He said if I would buy his mules he would throw in the farm, implements and improvements. I bought the mules and the remainder of the things mentioned. I had several similar offers and one farmer who was anxious to leave the country had a half section as good as any in Barton County and he offered either one of his quarters for $150 and would throw In the other quarter for good measure. These same quarters are worth $100 per acre today."
Mr. Andress has been offered $100 an acre for his holdings in Barton County but he says he will not sell yet awhile at any rate. In fact the last time he was in Great Bend he practically closed a deal for three more quarter sections of land in the county. Mr. Andress says although he might spend a great deal of his time in other parts of the country he always calls Barton County his home and is going to continue in the future as in the past to do all that is within his power to make it bigger and better in years to come.
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AMERICAN COURSING CLUB
[IMAGE]ONE of the institutions that flourished for awhile in the eighties in Great Bend, and afterwards became only a part of the history of the town, was the American Coursing Club. This club was the first of its kind to be organized In America and had for its purposes the racing of greyhounds and by these tests bring out the good points, and by eliminating the bad ones improve the breed of these fleet footed animals. The club was organized in 1886 after a meeting had been held at Topeka when the following were present: Dr. Royce of Topeka, Col. Taylor of Emporia, D. C. Luse of Great Bend, A. Allison of HutchInson and John Kelly of Dodge City. After the club was organized the officers immediately began looking for a suitable site for a course. They went all over the western part of the state but found nothing that was so well adapted for the purpose as Cheyenne Bottoms in Barton County. Therefore this site was selected and in October, 1886, the first meet was held. The meet was attended by people and dogs from all parts of the country and the entries included some of the fastest dogs in the world. The first officers of the club and the ones who had charge of the meeting were: Colonel Taylor of Emporia, president; Dr. Royce of Topeka, secretary and J. V. Brinkman of Great Bend, treasurer. There were two stakes run at each meet, one of them being for dogs of all ages, a free for all, with a ??? dollar entrance fee. The entrance money was divided into prizes and for the all age course a cup and a hundred dollars in cash was given by Dr. N. Rowe, editor of the sportsmen's magazine, "American Field." To this was added a silver medal fcr the winner given by the National Greyhound Club of New York City. D. C. Luse of Great Bend also donated a silver cup which had to be won twice by the same kennel to gain permanent possession. The winner of the first all age stake was "Midnight," owned by Colonel Taylor of Emporia. The other stake run at the annual meetings was known as the
[IMAGE]LADY BARTON
Winner of Many Courses in 1889.90-91. Amounting to Over $1,000
Owned by D. C. Luse, of Great Bend
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Puppy Stake for which similar prizes were given as were awarded the winners in the all all age stake. These meets brought thousands of people to Great Bend and during the coursing at the Cheyenne Bottoms the country was literally alive with men and women on horseback and in buggies. D. C. Luse of Great Bend at one time owned seventy-five dogs and his animals won the prizes at the second meeting of the club to be held In Great Bend. Among those who were keenly Interested In this sport were: D. C. Luse, Ira Brougher, J. V. Brinkman, D. N. Heizer, W. W. Carney and many others of Great Bend; C. S. Page of Aurora, Illinois; H. C. Lowe, at Lawrence, Kansas; Robert Smart of Ellinwood; Dr. N. Rowe of Chicago; August Belmont of New York; H. W. Huntington of Brooklyn; John E. Thayer of Lancaster, Massachusetts; A. C. Lightall of Denver, Colorado; Colonel R. S. McDonald of St. Louis; Colonel David Taylor of Emporia, and Alfred Haigh of Cable, Illinois. All of the names mentioned held offices in the club at different times during the time the club's coursing grounds were in Barton County. The winner of the all age stake was known as the Champion of America. After the meets had been held in Great Bend ten successive years the club was reorganized and the meets are still continued but are held at different points each year, the town or city offering the best financial inducements being given the preference. Many of the old timers will remember the exciting times that attended meets in Great Bend when numerous bets were made on the outcome of the different races.
[IMAGE]
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EARLY BARTON COUNTY HISTORY
By D. N. Heizer, of Colorado Springs, Colo.
(Editor's Note—The followig article was furnished us by D. N. Heizer, who perhaps more than any other man, is capable of telling about the stirring incidents that took place in the early days of Barton County. He was among the first to arrive and took a leading part in the laying out of the townsite of Great Bend and in the organization of Barton County.)
Upon request of the editors of the History of Barton County to contribute some account of myself and my experiences in the early settlement of the county which I became a citizen of nearly forty-two years ago and lived in for twenty-two years, I know of no better way than by contributing extracts from letters written in those days now in my possession, and extracts from a Diary, kept somewhat irregularly, giving an idea of the early life on what was then considered and called, "The Plains of Kansas," a somewhat modified term of the "Great American Desert," as explored and named by Major Long in 1819. I was born November 11, 1846, in Ross County, Ohio. I belonged to a race of pioneers; my great-grandfather, Samuel Heizer, was a pioneer in Virginia when the Blue Ridge Mountains marked the line of the frontier, and lived there at the time of the Revolution. My grand-father, Samuel Heizer, was a pioneer in Ohio and moved from Virginia to Ross County in 1816. My father, Edward Heizer, and his brothers all moved to Iowa on the admission of Iowa as a state into the Union, and a part of them before. I was raised on an Iowa farm fifteen miles north of Burlington until I was seventeen years of age, when I enlisted in the latter part of the civil war in Company "M" Second Iowa Cavalry, and served eighteen months of active service and was mustered out at the close of the war at Selma, Alabama. On returning home, I spent a year on the old home farm and during the next five years, spent the greater part of the time taking a course in the Iowa State University and in teaching school.
In May, 1871, within two days after our arrival at Ft. Zarah, Dr. John Prescott, W. W. Weymouth, Wm. Finn, Captain Griffin and myself, organized the Zarah Town Company. Dr. John Prescott was elected president, D. N. Heizer secretary and W. W. Weymouth treasurer. We were all directors. We at once proceeded to select a location for our town and decided on the west fractional half of section 26, township 19, range 13. William Finn, who had a transit and surveyor's chain with him, directed the survey and we staked out a street running north and south, as I remember, for about two blocks, a row of blocks on either side of the street. This was not intended to be a complete survey, but only such a survey as would enable us to make filing on this land under the Townsite-Preemption Act, as in force at that time. Mr. W. W. Weymouth and Dr. John Prescott were supposed to be the heavy capitalists in this enterprise and the next day after the survey were taken by me to Ellsworth where they took train for their respective homes. Mr. Weymouth to Springfield, Ohio, and Dr. Prescott to Meridan, Miss., both with the avowed determination of arranging their business as speedily as possible, to return with their families for settlement and to develop the new town.
As mentioned before, they were to furnish the capital and Finn and I, especially, were expected to do the heavy hustling. Dr. Prescott was a man of culture and of wonderful energy and had had much experience in frontier life in Northern Iowa in the Ockebogee Lake county, when the Sioux were making their last stand in that portion of Iowa. Mr. Weymouth was a cattle dealer of Springfield, Ohio. He was a man of means; Protestant Irish blood; of fine appearance; a good talker, good natured and jolly; thoroughly companionable and always ready with his Irish wit and blarney. Wm. Finn was a young man of about 28; lived at the then starting town of Sedgwlck, where he joined us to make the trip to Ft. Zarah. He was a quiet young man of good education, thoroughly good principle and a good all-round reliable young man. Captain Griffin was also a young man less than 30, had been in the war and lost a leg; was a small man, but he possessed enough spirit and energy to fully make up for his size. He could cover as much territory with his one good and wooden leg, as many men with two good ones. He was full of dash and afraid of nothing, and when later in that season, the Indians brought him to bay in a buffalo wallow in the Medicine Lodge country, seventy empty needle gun shells were found with his body, showing he had made a game defense.
These gentlemen, with myself, laid off the first town in Barton County—the town which was destined never to be a town—but no matter, we had done what seemed to be a new Kansan's first and highest duty, i. e., to lay off a town. No man ever amounted to much in Kansas, unless somewhere at some time in his experience in the state, he laid out a town, or at least, helped to do so or got laid out by some town. Many prominent Kansans can point with pride to the latter experience.
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The representatives of the Great Bend Town Company appeared on the scene about the 1st of July, headed by Judge Mitchell of Quincy, Ill., who was a brother of Mrs. W. H. Odell. I returned from a trip on the 4th of July, 1871, the day they had taken their departure. They were apparently on a buffalo hunt, from what Finn related to me, and seemed to be having a good time. In charging a buffalo on the north aide of the Bottoms from Ft. Zarah, Judge Mitchell had a horse killed, but escaped unhurt himself. Later, I believe in August, came Thomas Luther Morris, as agent of the Great Bend Town Company and at about this time came Geo. N. Moses, "Mose," as he was familiarly called among the plainsmen. "Mose" impressed me, and I shall never forget the time he came to my camp, then on the northwest quarter of section 22, township 19, range 13, on the Walnut. He rode up on a fourteen hand white Texas pony; he dismounted from a big high backed cowboy saddle with two cinches and wooden stirrups a foot wide. "Mose" and the saddle were larger than the broncho. He stood before me six feet high and straight as an Indian arrow; he had on a weather worn cowboy hat with a rattlesnake band, a navy blue woolen shirt, a pair of much worn buckskin pants with fringe down the seams, cowboy boots, a heavy belt of cartridges with two Navy 44's in its holsters, a five day growth of beard and about a three-ply coat of tan on his face. He reached out his hand and said, "How," like an Injun. As I took it and glanced him over, I made up my mind at once that this was a man I would rather have with me than against me.
Lute Morris, on the other hand, had just come out of the band-box of civilization; he was a gentleman of the Drawingroom type and had never had any experience roughing it and being a man rather of a delicate type physically, with more effeminate tastes, it was perfectly natural that he should make up with "Mose" at Salina and interest him in coming with him into the great and wild Arkansas Valley. It was just as natural for Lute to lean on such a nature as "Mose's" as is for "Mose," in his strength, to permit himself to be leaned upon; they became fast friends. It was through council with George Moses that I afterwards agreed to assure Lute Morris and the Great Bend Town Company, that If they meant business and were ready to proceed at once to improve their town site, (Sec. 28, Township 19, Range 13,) we would not be in the way with ours. We all then went in together to push the Great Bend enterprise along.
Lute Morris began at once to draw lumber from Ellsworth to build the Great Bend Hotel, which I think was started early in September. Henry Shaffer was brought from Quincy to superintend the carpenter work and I think Henry Shridde came in this connection. E. L. Morphy also came at this time. The Town Company, or the main men of it, made a trip in the early fall; Dr. Curtis, Judge Mitchell, Archie Williams, then attorney general of Kansas, and others. Morphy was a very interesting, bright little Frenchman; a good observer; had a keen sense of the ludicrous; fond of fun at anyone's expense, but never cruel; was a fine singer, a natural born actor and mimic; a general all round campanionable fellow and cultured gentleman. "Morf," as we called him, never missed anything and always entertained us with the little funny things he observed of any of us. It was rumored that the Great Bend Town Company had brought a goodly supply of whisky along with them as they had learned that a colony of Prairie Dogs had long been squatters on their townsite and as rattlesnakes were reported to live with the dogs, the whisky was brought lest the town company might, in an unguarded moment, be bitten on its Charter or By-Laws, or most anywhere, at any rate, they had the whiskey. It seems that everyone bragged to the different members of the Town Company of the integrity of wild life in the wooly west. Nobody ever thought of looking anything up, never had anything stolen and left everything right out in the open. The next morning the Great Bend Town Company had its Charter, By-Laws, Plats, Specifications, boots and shoes, wearing apparel, bags and baggage all right, but they didnt have any whiskey. No one was drunk, faces not even red, but Morphy always said that the next morning when any member of the Town Company would undertake to engage Henry Shaffer in conversation, Henry would smack his lips, turn his liquid blue eyes toward heaven and exclaim that the "Kavincy down Gompany vos yust all right and would make a bigger down as anybody."
Henry Shridde was as nice a little gentleman as ever came to the settiment, but with that fine tender feeling In his heart for old associations, which the Germans possess above all other people, Henry used to get homesick once in a while. Henry would say, "Dawn at Kavincy on a Sunday morning, we used to go down by the Mississippi river, und de boat would take us by de river out, and we vould land by de grass out mit de drees, und der sun a shining, und der boids a singing n de drees, und we'd ave some music und some beers. Oh, dat Kavincy was a burty blace," and the tears would fill Henry's blue eyes.
Dr. Curtis was a very lofty, dignified man. He had brought with him a new dangerous looking butcher knife; he asked Morphy to conduct him to the Arkansas river; every now and then he would make a lofty sweeping stab into the soil with his butcher knife and getting some of the said soil on the knife, he would pose with lofty demeanor as be gazed at it. After a long surgical stare at the sample of soil, he would cast a deliberate sweeping glance around over miles of the beautiful valley and with unction, exclaim, "Morphy, the resources
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D. N. Heizer
of this country are vast, vast." They came to the river bank; the river was dry. Morphy proposed they should cross. "Dr." said Morphy, "Can this river be crossed?" (Yes.) "Are there any quicksands in this river?" (No) "Can it be safely crossed on horseback?" "Yes) "On foot?" (Yes) "Is there no danger?" (No) "All right, go ahead." and all the way across he would follow Morphy, carefully stepping in his tracks.
Morphy used to entertain us by the hour after the Town Company had gone, mimicking the peculiarities of different members.
The Great Bend Hotel was completed in the early winter and Col. Tom Stone came from Missouri and took possession as landlord, also brought with him a stock of goods. Col. Tom was a genial, hospitable landlord and all the settlers liked him.
The Great Bend Hotel began to be the center of interest for the settlers up the Walnut Valley but a decisive event cccurred about the first of March, 1872, when the officiais of the Great Bend Town Company came out from Quincy and made a deal with the Arkansas Valley Town Company (The A. T. & S. F. R. R.,) to combine their interests and push the town of Great Bend, and it was agreed to put in section 28, township 19, range 13, which the Great Bend Town Company had secured, and section 33. town 19, range 13 which the railroad company owned as the townsite. This began to look like business and gave the settlers west of the Walnut, an additional interest in the town nearest to them.
About the same time, in the summer of 1871, July 1st, when the Great Bend Town Company began to act, a town company was formed at Ellsworth. Kansas, by Titus J. Buckby. John Light & Bros., Perry Hodgden, Judge Miller and others, called the Zarah Town Company, and located on the fractional part of section 30, town 19, range 12, lying just outside of the southeastern part of Ft. Zarah
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Residence Built by D. N. Heizer in Great Bend Which Later
Became the Nucleus of the St. Rose Hospital
Reservation. Tite Buckby built a store and had it stocked and in operation in the early fall of 1871. Dave Greaver built a saloon and restaurant, and Dick Strew and his wife moved down from Plum Creek and built a hotel in the early winter of 1871. TIte Buckby was a bright, business-like young man and he and his wife, Mrs. Nettie Buckby (nee Light), were very amiable and popular among the settlers, and really carried with their personal popularity, a very kindly feeling for the town of Zarah. In the early spring, each side began to show jealously and watch each other.
Captain Ellinwood, the chief engineer of the Santa Fe R. R., made his camp during the spring while at work on the survey near Zarah and it was said, Tite was entertaining the captain just as though he were the whole railroad company. It was even hinted that Tite had imported a two gallon keg of the best rye whisky in the State of Kentucky, and was every day putting a little of it in the captain's canteen to kill the alkali, and up to the first week in March all feared that it was doing its deadly work as we could see plainly that Captain Ellinwood was very friendly to Zarah and its proprietor. We did not know any more about town building than Tite did and supposed the chief engineer might be the whole "push." There was Tite's mistake; he depended upon his hospitabe entertainment of the engineer corps too much, instead of going to headquarters, Archie Williams, who was interested in the Great Bend Town Company, knew a thing or two and I have always g1vn him the credit for bringing about the deal between the Quincy people and the railroad company.
The first week in March, 1872, the officials of the Great Bend Town Company came on the ground and started a complete survey of section 28, town 19, range 13, with the announcement that they had formed a combination with the railroad company. They employed E. B. Cowgill as surveyor and prcceeded at once to business, and this fact coupled with the foregoing announcement, gave to the settlers new confidence in the town of Great Bend.
On the evening of March 14th, I was invited to spend the evening with Col. Stone's family at the Great Bend Hotel, for a social sing. Late in the evening, Lute Morris and W. H. Odell called me out into the bar room and showed be a petition they had drawn up for the organization of the county and the appointment of county commissioners and county clerk. It had my name on for commissioner and I tried in vain to have them change it for another but they asked me how I liked the remainder of the ticket. After changing one, we laid our plans for organization and then being warned that it was very late in the night, we all went to bed, I staying at the hotel. On March 15th and 16th we circulated the petition, got it signed and the papers all made out. We had the people with us and not a man refused to sign the petition. Of course, as it was intended to be a quiet move, we did not present it to anyone for signature we had any doubt about being in full sympathy with Great Bend for the county seat.
On March 18th, Lute Morris went to Topeka to present the papers in person to Gov. James Harvey, who was the governor of Kansas and whose duty it was to act upon the petition. In about two days he returned posthaste, having found on his arrival at Topeka, that a new law had been made by the legislature during the winter, providing that a census taker should be appointed in organizing a new county and that it should be his duty to find six hundred inhabitants therein before the governor could name temporary county officers and county seat. This new law had just been published and gone into effect, and he at once returned to make a new start before the Zarahites should get ahead of us. He came after me in the evening at my dugout on Walnut creek; we went over to the Great Bend Hotel and got the petition ready and concluded that we would have the papers ready for
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Last Sod House in Barton County. North of Pawnee Rock
him to take the train at Ellsworth the next evening at six o'clock, as we learned the Zarah people were making a move. I rode all that night to get the requisite number of signatures and by noon of the next day, the petition was ready to go. Lute took it and drove to Ellsworth, a distance of fifty miles, in six hours and caught the train. This was on March 21, 1872, for I was appointed census taker in and for Barton county, on the foll3wing day. On March 29th, 1 went over to Great Bend and here learned our petition had reached the governor first and E. L. Morphy and I secured a buggy and drove to Zarah and found my commission from James M. Harvey, as census taker, with instructions to proceed at once to enumerate the inhabitants of Barton County. We now had victory in our grasp if we could but find the six hundred inhabitants. Fortunately, we had a hotel register and grading camps were being established every day to do grading work on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and the prairie schooners of the homesteaders were all coming to our assistance, six hundred strong.
On Saturday, March 30, I began taking the the census. In the evening I came home to my dugout about ten o'clock and found a light n the window. I peeped in very cautiously and somebody was in my bed, and it looked like a rosy cheeked, curly headed girl, who was sleeping very peacefully in the only bed on the plantaticn; here was a fine kettle of fish—what right could this intruding young lady have for absolutely taking possession of the only home I had on earth? There were dying embers in the fireplace and egg shells scattered over the hearth. She had made herself comfortable with fire from my Sunday wood and appeased her prairie appetite with a three dollar setting of Black Cochin eggs and then deliberately gone to sleep right in the middle of my sole and only bed. After surveying this sublimity of nerve, I noticed on my buffalo settee, a pair of trousers, then I was aroused to self again and with the point of a Navy 44, I punched this intruder and to my great surprise, it proved to be Tom McCaughan, my future brother-in-law, who afterward went with me and helped in my census work and who also became a great favorite with the buffalo bunters as he was afraid of nothing; always genial and pleasant, a good cook, good story teller and all round good fellow. The Indians always called him "Man-Squaw" because of his clean, rosy face and long curly hair. Had Tom staid on the plains, he would have made a character for a book of adventures as he was always falling into the most thrilling experiences.
Monday morning, April 1st, Tom and I started out on census business, went to Great Bend and found some men who wanted to go six miles west to find their land and locate building places. We went and showed them their lines and then went to Pawnee Rock and enumerated the Kentcuky colony. This was a colony of young men, brought out under the leadership of Geo. M. Jackson, Hon. E. W. Hoch and brother, of Marion, Kansas, who were members of this colony. They had already put up a frame house on the townsite of Pawnee Rock and Geo. Jackson, in his earnest, assuring manner, announced that Pawnee Rock was going to make a great place, for "Don't you see," he said, "it is geographically situated and historically known." They were a bright, enterprising lot of young men and it would be interesting to know where they all are now. After partaking of a camp
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One of Great Bend's Volunteer Fire Companies
meal with them, we went north to Walnut creek to section 10, northwest quarter townshIp 18, range 14, where we stayed all night with Levi H. Lusk, who had built a nice little frame house. Next morning, April 2nd, we went up the creek to the county line, enumerating all as we went; where we took dinner with another tribe of bachelors. We came back down the creek a few miles to section 26, township 18, range 15, where we staid all night at Bill Atchison's camp with another tribe of Bachelors. Bill had located there with forty Texas cow boys whom he was trying to domesticate. He had laid aside his religion, temporarily, during the domesticating process. Bill was an exception of a cattle man. You could get milk at his camp; he would have it and he would lasso a Texas cow and get it.
Milk was a part of his hospitality and that made Bill's camp famous in the valley. The rule in cattle camps was, the more cattie they had the scarcer were milk and butter. Bill made no pretentions to either, but you could always get a good drink of milk. In this camp were Chas. Worden, Henry Kellar, Mr. Brining, Mr. Albright and Charlie Roudebush. Lower down in the edge of section 18-14, were Nate Field and Geo. Berry. Still farther down were some German families. On section 3 was Mr. Mecklin and his son and Antone Wilke, who is now a prosperous business man in Denver, Colorado. On section 10, Henry Schultz and his family; John Reinecke and family and Bill Bahler. On section 14, Robert Gibson.
Most all of the early settlers, were young, married men and old bachelors. When a new caravan would come in, these single-blessed creatures would almost ask in chorus, "Have they any gals?" Fortunate was the homesteader who had a "gal" in the family. He could command the best we all had of everything.
The following offices were held by D. N. Heizer while he was a resident of Barton County:
First notary public commissioned in the county. Commission dates January 9, 1872, issued to D. N. Heizer and signed by James M. Harvey, governor and W. N. Smallwood, secretary of state.
Appointed as census-taker of Barton County to take census far organization of county, March 22, 1872, by Gov. James M. Harvey.
Elected July 5th, 1872 to office of probate judge of Barton County.
Elected November 5th, 1872 to office of register of deeds of Barton County.
Rail road assessor of 4th Judicial district, composed of the counties of Barton, Ellsworth, Ellis, Lincoln, McPherson, Russell, Saline and Wallace. Commission signed by W.
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Transcribed from Biographical history of Barton County, Kansas. ; Illustrated. Published by Great Bend Tribune, Great Bend, KS : 1912. 318 p. : ill. ; 28 cm. Transcribed by Carolyn Ward, July 2006.
