PIONEER HISTORY OF KANSAS
by Adolph Roenigk
Transcribed and submitted by his Great Grandniece L Ann Bowler
Book Cover
Adolph Roenigk - Obituary
Table of Contents
PART I
Page 1
A Struggle for Liberty
A Stormy Period; The Missouri Compromise; John
Brown; Defeat Slavery; Kansas in the Civil War
Page 6
The Quantrell Raid
By W. K. Cone
Page 11
Early Day Reminiscenses of Dr. N. C. Fancher
Service of the Fanchers to Their Country; With General
Green in the Revolutionary War; Kansas in 1853
Page 20
Dr. N. C. Fancher, Continued
Saw Mills on the Present Site of Kansas City; Indians
Celebrate the Installation of One; Helping Name the
Town of Chanute; Had First Stock of Drugs in Neosho
County; Meeting with Klu Klux Klan in Arkansas
Page 30
Early Days of Abilene and Dickinson County
Reminiscences of the Long Horn Days of Abilene,
Contributed by Theophilys Little
Page 42
As He Remembers It
Mr. J. W. Hopkins Tells of Some Incidents That Went
to Make Up the Youth of the Pioneer; The Little
Arkansas Valley in 1870 a Debatable Place; Come
Home, Sonny, Come Home.
Page 48
Running the Blockade
A Desperate Battle to Death With Indians and
Renegades
Page 56
A Tale Illustrating the Vagaries of Kansas Weather
By Guy Von Scriltz, Coldwater, Kansas
Page 63
Across the Plains in 1866
U. S. Army Surgeon Tells of Crossing the Great Plains
of Kansas, Accompanied by His Courageous Wife and
Two Small Children; Contributed by D. B. Long
Page 69
Horned Toad Harry
A Startling Departure of the Usual Procedure Is
Experienced by the Bad Men of Caldwell
Page 74
The Hunter Hunted
Old Frontiersman Tells of Scrap with Elk and a Lively
Footrace with Mounted Indians
Page 82
Trials of the Thompson Creek Pioneers
By Luther R. Johnson
Page 90
Uncle Mart
A Pioneer of 1866; How He Carved a Home for Himself
and His Posterity; His First Buffalo Hunt; Contending
with High Water; An Old Time Ring Contest
Page 98
Last Buffalo Killed in Lincoln County
Several Claimants to This Distinction; Palm Must Be
Awarded to Wilson Schofield and the Buffalo Which He
Killed After an Exciting Chase; An Excited Irishman
and a Speciman of the Great American Bison Engage
in a Trial of Endurance
PART II
Page 102
The North American Savage
Observation of His Character and Actions During a
Period of Service in the United States Army
By Hercules H. Price
Page 110
Reminiscences of the Early Days As Told by
Ferdinand Erhardt
A Paper Read Before the Old Settlers Reunion at
Lincoln in 1906; Building Stockades for Protection of
Settlers; A Buffalo Stampede; Trading with General
Lyon at Fort Riley; Fight at Platte Bridge; Indian
Cave on Bullfoot Creek
Page 125
The Mulberry Scrap
An Account of a Massacre of Pawnee Indians by
Soldiers and Settlers; Indians Were Not Always the
Aggressors
Page 132
Battle of Arickaree
Forsythe Scouts at Beecher Island; Scouts Surrounded;
Charge and Death of Chief Roman Nose; Volunteers Go
to Ft. Wallace; A Siege of Nine Days; The Final Rescue
Page 149
Winter Campaign Against the Hostiles
The Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry; Custer’s Seventh
Cavalry; Attack on Camp of Black Kettle; Rescue of
Two White Women
Page 159
A Brief Sketch of the Lives of the Roenigk Family and
Their Settlement in Kansas
The Writer’s Arrival in the United States; Traveling
by Steamboat; First Visit in Kansas
Page 164
Incidents Connected with the Building of the Union
Pacific Railroad, Written from Memory from the Standpoint
of an Observer
Page 167
Railroading Among the Indians
Thrilling Experience of the Writer at Fossil Creek Station
Page 183
Fossil Creek Station--Continued
Scarcity of Water; Pumping by Horsepower; How
Cook’s Pony Died; Celebrating Christmas, 1868
Page 189
Fossil Creek Station--Continued
A Lawless Character Brought to Time; A Speciman
of the Early Day Happy Hooligan and His Subsequent
Discomfiture
Page 194
Fossil Creek Station--Continued
Hunting Buffalo on the Great Plains of Kansas
Experience in the Great Sportsman’s Paradise
Page 201
Fossil Creek Station--Continued
Hunting Buffalo and Antelope; Shipping Buffalo to an
Eastern Zoo
Page 207
Fossil Creek Station--Continued
Victims of Indian Resentment; The Number never
Accurately Determined; Monuments Erected by the
Union Pacific Railway
Page 212
Indian Raids Subsequent to Those of 1868
Indians Not Wholly Subdued by Custer’s Cavalry’
Savages Return to Their Old Bounds; Indians Who
Attacked Track Laborers on the Union Pacific Railroad
Continued to the Saline; Killing of Settlers; A Running
Fight; Capture of Two Women
Page 221
An Account of an Indian Attack on a Party of Four
Buffalo Hunters
Their Narrow Escape, as Related to the Writer by
Solomon Humbarger, One of the Participants
Page 234
Movement to Erect a Monument to the Dead
Identity of the Indians Never Fully Established; Short
Excerpts from Several Authorities; Battle of Summit
Springs, Treasure Found in Indian Camp; Various Reports;
How Difficult It Was at This Date to Particularize
Those Past Events
Page 248
Indian Skull Found in the Vicinity of the Battlefield
of Summit Springs
Its Probable History
Page 259
Visiting Indian Battlefields
A Surprise and Destruction of a Peaceable Band of
Indians; Beecher Island; Monument Erected by Kansas
and Colorado; Annual Celebration Held on the Former
Battlefield; Looking for the Battlefield of Summit
Springs; Julesburg and the Site of Fort Sedgwick
Page 281
Henry Benien, a Custer’s Seventh Cavalry Man and
Pioneer Settler
Eight Years of Service in the United States Army; Five
Years with Custer; Custer’s Last Fight, As Related by
Comrade Roy; Henry Benien, a Prosperous Farmer of
Lincoln County, Kansas
Page 299
Acquiring a Homestead on Our Public Domain
A Homestead Law in Brief; the Homestead Region; the
Arrival of the Settlers; the Prairie Schooner; Temporary
Shelter; The Dugout; Rattlesnakes; the Ox Team;
Changes for the Beter; the Wealthy Retired Farmer
Page 317
Interesting Experience of Two Tenderfeet
Comical Incidents Which Happened on the Homestead
Page 324
The Republican River in the Days Before Bridges
Were Built
A Fourth of July Celebration Attended by Difficulties
Page 330
Northwestern Kansas
The Republican Valley; Ancient Pawnee Vilage;
Monument erected Where Zebulon M. Pike First Hoisted
the American Flag; White Rock Creek; Indian
Depredations
Page 349
Northwestern Kansas--Continued
Buffalo Hunters and Robe Merchants; the Solomon
River; Hunting Expeditions; Otoe and Omaha Indians
Tanning Robes
Page 357
Conclusion
Proof of the Writer’s Contention; the Foregoing
Happened in the Course of Evolution; the
Fittest Will Survive
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