Early History of Decatur County
As Mrs. S. J. Harvie Remembers It
The following history of the settlement of Decatur County was written by Mrs.
S. J. Harvie in 1909, and any attempted history of the county would not be
complete without including Mrs. Harvie's account.
The summer of 1872 seen the western plains of Kansas literally covered with
buffalo. And men who were not
hunters but home seekers in the central part of the state came in parties to get
meat for their families and also to dry (called jerked Meat), which they could
sell in the eastern market with the hides for a good price, and was a help to
them to buy the necessary clothing and coffee and tobacco.
On their return to their homes they told of the beautiful valleys of the Beaver, Sappa and Prairie Dog, which ran through Decatur County, which was also touched by the Solomon in the southeast corner.
As the U. P. railroad was only ninety miles on the, north and the K. P. R. W.
fifty-five miles on the south it was supposed to be safe from hos�tile Indian
as troops could be rushed in on either road to protect the settlers. (They
figured without thinking of red tape.) And as a sur�vey had been made of the
northwest counties that summer quite a num�ber of those men returned and filed
on land and trapped the winter of 1872 and 1873. Among the number was W, D.
Street who has repre�sented our county several times and has held other
important offices in the state. He is with us yet, hale and hearty, the only one
remaining of those he came in with.
Early in the fall of 1872 Colonel J. A. Hopkins, man of good education a
civil engineer, a forty-niner, a man who had lost his wife and children, and who
was soured on the world, accompanied by Del Coburn and Henry Playford, came in
from Cawker City. S. Porter
and John Griffin came in from Nebraska and joined the Cawker City party for mutual protection
and trapped during the winter of 1873.
In December of
1872 a party
of four, consisting of Uncle Ben Lewis, C. J. Lewis, H. P. Gandy and W. D.
Street visited the Sappa valley, selected land and became residents of Decatur
county.
The boundaries of
the county were defined by the legislature of 1873.
The name was given to it by Mayor J. T. Morrison representative from
Smith county, at the suggestion of Capt. Wm. Decatur Covington, who had visited
the county.
The U. S. land
office records show that Samuel M. Porter filed on SE l/4 of 29-2-28, December
16, 1872, John Griffin, NE � of 29-2-28, December 16, 1872, Henry Playford NW
1/4 28-2-28, December 16, 1872, Del Coburn SW 1/4
28-2-28, December 16, 1872. The Por�ter
and Coburn land is now owned by Geo. M. Miller.
Settlement was made by Col. James A. Hopkins on the SW l/4 of 12-2-28, December 28, 1872.
J. A. Rodehaver
made settlement on the SW 1/4
1-3-29 April 29, 1873, and proved up on the same December 1, 1873.
He had the north one hundred acres platted and surveyed April 1874,
called Westfield, now known as Original Oberlin. It was the second claim proved
up on.
David Sherrad
proved up on his land, which was part of 27-1-27, the 4th of October 1873, thus
having the honor of being the first one to prove up on land in Decatur County.
The spring of 1873
saw quite an emigration to Decatur County.
To the Sappa came Robert Bridle and fam�ily, Mr. Humphry and family,
Charles Canfield and family, John Justice and family, Sheppard Farren and
family, and Mr. Austin and fam�ily.
In the early spring H. P. Gandy brought his wife and she was the first
white woman to live in the county. She
was the mother of the second white child born in the county, which was born in
July in 1873. She shot herself through the foot in the early fall and was taken to Logan, where she
died soon
after her
arrival there.
The child lived for several months and died.
Among the ones
that came in that summer was Mr. Austin, who died in December 1873, the first
white grown
person to die in
the county. A two weeks old
babe of Canfield's was buried
the 21st of September,
1873, the first white person buried in the county.
The latter part of the winter of 1872 there
were two trappers stayed on the Beaver, Joe Dimick and another whose name
is forgotten, on what is now Cedar Bluffs.
The summer of 1873 there came James Jones, Lem Daniels, Clarence and
Joseph Dimmick and their father, Ike Bowen and father, Dave Joyce, Pat Rathbun,
James Addis, Joe Turby and Frank Kimball.
t
In the fall the McKinzie and Hemper families came in and Clarence Dimick and
Julia McKinzie were the first couple to be married in that settlement.
Of the men who had families east, and single men, were J. A. Rodehaver, Wm.
Love, Robert Riley, W. Richardson, Ben Lewis, John Payton,
Joe Woods, J.A.Hopkins,
Dave Hemp and Vance
Sherrard, Capt. Allen, Fred Douglass,
Elmore Allen, L. M. and W. H.
Andrews, Oscar Bass, J. D, Wickham, Tom Sorick,
Lute Holingsworth, W. W. Hopkins, Lee Mowry, Lambert Snyder, Wm.. Tubbs,
--- Stanfield, Abe Cox, Joseph
Bryson, Dave Hopkins, A. J. Cox, and probably some whose names have been
forgotten.
On the Prairie Dog were Sol Rees, Bill Rose, Ed O'Brien, Bill Quinn John
Worval, Geo. Shultz, and sev�eral whose names have passed from memory.
Of married men, were a Mr.
Win and family and Stuttering Smith, who drove an ox team and had one cow which
they took with them when they visited their near neighbors on the Sappa.
April 17, 1873, there came to Big Timber, a tributary of the Prairie Dog, a
small colony of Bohemians from near Omaha, Nebraska. They were Joseph Cilek,
Wenzel Rohan, Wm. Heilman, Wenzel Skalok, Joseph Wenzel, Jacob, Joseph, Wenqel,
Anton, Frank, Louis and Joe Blecha.
To Joseph Cilek and wife was born a girl, the 2nd of June, 1873, the first,
white child horn in the county. They named her Josia and she is now the wife of
Win. Stramp, a well to do farmer who lives near Jennings, and I
she is the mother of a fine family of children.
Robert Riley, Wm. Love and John Stiner and families arrived the 12th of September 1873. J. A. Rodehaver's wife and babies came the 21st from Athens county, Ohio, and then com�ing over from Buffalo Park the team had to stop when near the Saline to let a herd of buffalo pass.
Mr. Rodehaver had a log house built for us with a shingle roof and a board
floor, the first house built west of Norton Center. It was only 16x18 feet but
it looked larger then than our opera house does now.
George Miller lived with us the first
winter and as it may interest the ladies to know how we managed to get along in
one room with three grown people and three children I will tell them.
We had one large bed with a trundle
bed for the children which we pushed under the large bed in day time, and made a
bunk on the wall out of poles about three feet from the floor and put our
groceries, flour, etc, underneath and George occupied the bunk of nights for a
bed.
Our table was made out of a side of a
large box with hewn poles for legs and had a cupboard made of lumber left from
the house. Our bookcase was a small dry goods box nailed to the wall.
We had brought a sewing machine,
dresser and bedding for four beds and how we stowed everything away and had
plenty of room to get around, I can't hardly see, as we had no other place to
store anything.
We only had two meals a day that
winter as none of us could get sleep enough, and it was no variety in meals, one
day was about the same as another. Our breakfast was served about 9 a. m.
Coffee, without milk, gravy, biscuit, syrup and meat, and when we made a change
it was fried mush. Our mid-afternoon meal was buffalo meat stewed with dumplings
made out of biscuit dough, which was made up with what the hunters called
sourings �lour, water and yeast mixed together and let stand still sour-beans
stewed with salt pork or rice, and for company we added dried apples or
prunes. For six months we did not have milk, butter or eggs. Everything but the
buffalo meat had to be hauled from Cawker City, 125 miles away.
The land office was at that place then
and all land business had to be transacted there, and our provisions could be
bought there when they had to go to the land office. Kirwin had two stores at
that time but every�thing was freighted there and it was cheaper to load at
Cawker.
The spring of 1874 seen quite a number of emigrants come in.
Among them were George Penson and family,
Peter Johnson and family, Henry
Anthony anal family, J. A. Van wormer and family ( Van wormer brought Nigger Sam
along with him, our first colored
inhabit), Gus Carlson, Will Ufford and Jule Ufford. The later soon tired of the
west and returned to New York, but in a short time he returned with
his wife and they have stayed through the droughts and good seasons ever
since.
There was quite a number on the Beaver and below us on the Sappa but I do not know their names.
Warren Jennings came to the Prairie Dog in April 1874, from Red Oak, Iowa,
accompanied by John Green and family, a son-in-law, and settled near where
Jennings is now, leaving his family and goods at Belleville, Kansas. He brought
some lumber from Belvidere, Nebraska, and went to Kearney, Nebraska, for two
loads more to complete the house, which was the first frame home west of Norton.
The Jennings were of that class of people that shed a bright influence to
all that knew them. The father and mother have
gone to their reward but the
children are all
living and well. Bedford
Jennings is one the leading business men of Jennings.
George Shoemaker and several others carne in and settled near Shibboleth in the spring of 1874.
We petitioned the government for a post office to be called Sappa and to be
established at what is now Oberlin in February 1874, and for mail service
from Norton. Our wishes were granted and J. A. Rodehaver was appointed
postmaster and his wife assistant. In
March, with snow on the ground, they drove
to Squire Oliver's one mile southwest of' Norton to take
the oath of office. The mail service by way of Long Branch arid Lyle was
commenced the 3rd of a July Jack
Brooks carrier. It was soon extended to Connersville northwest on the Beaver,
Frank Kim�ball postmaster.
In June Loge Booth
killed a boy known as the kid supposed to be connected with stealing horses.
The grasshoppers
came the last of July and took everything, even the onions, and biting the babies
faces. They left us with only hay for our stock.
But we had plenty
of poultry, milk, butter, and eggs, :old got along quite well with the exception
that several families left the county.
Early in the fall
Charlie Canfield, a hunter who had his family on a homestead that is now part of
the John Love farm, followed the buffalo west for a load of hides.
Weeks went by and no word came from or of him.
His wagon with the
hides on it had been found north of Wallace and by it lay
the skeleton of a man with a bullet hole in the head
back of the ear, where ire had been shot from behind. They hauled the skeleton,
load and wagon to Wallace.
His wife, with a
two weeks old babe in her arms went to Buffalo Park. sixty five miles, in a
wagon, and then to Wallace by railroad. She identified the wagon from among
sixty-five that were in the corral and the skeleton as Canfield's by the teeth.
She brought the bones home and our cemetery was started. His grave is unmarked
and soon no one will know where it is. Why not put his name on the monument with
those killed in 1878?
December of 1874
and January and February of 1875 George Worthington tan ht a subscription school in a dug out in the east part of what is now East Oberlin, vacated by J.
A. Vanwormer, who had finished and moved into his
frame building
in town, the first real store in the county.
The spring of 1875
a mail route was established from Red Willow, Nebraska, to Buffalo Park, Kansas,
by way of Oberlin, and a post office was established at Shibboleth with Isaac
Peck as postmaster. We began to
think we were in civilization again.
The Texas cattle
trail was moved from the east line of Norton county to eight miles west of
Oberlin, and it was interesting to see those herds of five thousand and
sometimes more go over the trail. They went to Ogallala to feed the Indians and
establish the great stock ranches of Colorado.
Everything planted
that summer done well. The grasshoppers took a narrow strip north and south
through the center of the county, but with the exception of that we had a boun�teous
crop.
The summer of 1875
was our first marriage. The
contracting parties were Calvin Gay, 65 years, and Mag�gie Robinson, age 15
years. Vanwormer having been appointed by the governor to act as Squire, he per�formed
the ceremony.
And Lee Moury won
the love of Mary Ellen, daughter of Matt Mont�gomery, but the father needed the
girl for housekeeper and was not willing for Lee to have her, but friends aided
them and they eloped to Beaver City in a road wagon hauled by an ox team and
were mar�ried there. They spent their honey�moon on the range catching buffalo
calves for eastern parties.
The winter of 1875
an 1876 was a very pleasant winter with the ex�ception of one cold spell in
January. The buffalo grass was fine Cattle were as fat as if fed corn. The 6th
of March, George Gippe and Ada Umphry were married at noon and at seven Will
Ufford and Myra Love.
George Gippe was
killed some tune after by two of the Driscoll boys with clubs. The trouble was
over Dris�coll's cattle destroying Gippe's feed.
We lost our cops
again that sea�son and the Custer massacre caused us to lx> uneasy about the
Indians, and we thought we might have to leave.
We had no school
that winter. A few literarys and Glances were our only amusements
The grasshoppers
had deposited their eggs, millions of then, in the fall and in the spring they
com�menced to hatch out. It looked as if we would lose all again. But the 29 of
April there came a storm of snow, sleet and rain, lasting three days, and by the
time it stopped the young grasshoppers were dead, the dirt roofs were leaking
until it was dryer out of doors than in, and again we had a crop that gave us
hopes of a our county.
In June Baldwin Riley, one of our
mostly highly respected young men, went to work on the Webber cattle ranch,
(where Atwood now is), and in a few days he was reported miss�ing. Search was made
for him, and two weeks later he was found. He had been shot mid it has never
been known by whom, some thought by Indians, some by a horse thief who had
escaped from the Norton jail and who had sworn vengeance on Frank Webber, who
had him arrested for stealing horses, and sorrow came not only to relatives but
to all of us that knew him.
We had a epidemic
of typho malar�ial fever that summer, but thanks to the skill and care of Mrs.
Dr. Story Briggs who stayed with us until al�most all were around no one died
of the fever. She lived, at that time, several miles below Devises mill.
That fall seen our
first threshing machines. Heretofore
we had used a flail or trarnped the grain out with horses.
Eva Vancleave
taught our school the summer of 1878.
We built our log
schoolhouse that fall and Cavit Miller taught school the following winter, and
Rev. Ruben Bisbee of the M. E. church preached once a month in it.
With the spring of
1878 came a large immigration to the county, young men, old men, married men and single men, from as far
east as Marblehead, Massachusetts, New
The troops had a
skirmish with the Indians the 28th, south of the U. P. railroad. In that
engagement Colonel Lewis had been killed, and, for some cause unknown to the
writer, the troops failed to force the Indians back to the reservation, or to
stop them from coming on north on their trip of carnage.
They committed
their first act of violence on Sunday the 29th, on the north fork of the
Solomon, Lit Letherman's ranch, by shooting at two immigrant boys who got away
from them and came to the Prairie Dog, the one that was shot died the next day.
The comrade came in about 8:00 a. m. the morning of the 30th for a doctor, and
reported about the Indians being south o� us, but no one believed it to be
true, thinking the trouble had been from some other cause.
There were several
teams and men starting for Buffalo Park, expecting their families to arrive
there by the time the teams would get there from Oberlin. They were getting
provisions for their trip, and the men from the claims were getting theirs for
the week. When the Indian scouts came on the hill south of town and saw such a
cowl of men they turned west. We saw them but took them to be men hunting corner
stones. They struck the Texas cattle trail, crossed the South Sappa and went
into camp west of the Anthony home�stead, at that time known as the Keefer
ranch.
Soon after seeing
the scouts Watt Smith came into town with Joe Rabb and family and the women of
the Smith family with the horses on a run, the tire off of one wheel, it had
come off at the Street farm. a mile above Oberlin. He brought the news that
himself, father and John Hud�son were malting hay on the place owned by Mrs.
Lydia Barnes, sister of the famous; "Wild Bill," the In�dians rode up
out of a draw, coming toward Colvin's, they shot. Hudson (lead and Watt supposed
his father also, but when the party went out the next clay to gather up the.
dead they found Smith still alive, with three bullet wounds and four arrows in
his body. He was still living
but died that night, some 36 hours after he was wounded. Watt escaped by get�ting
into a channel of the creek fol�lowing it down to Joe Rabb's claim, now owned
by Dailey, who got it of Joe Bivans. He
got Mrs, Rabb and the two children, Rabb was making hay east of the house, and
ran east till they came in sight of Rabb and he came to them and they came on to
Smith's and to town.
The settlers
killed that day were:
G. F. Walter,
F. M. Abernathy,
-----------
Lull,
Ferdinand Wesfall and son,
Marcelus Felt,
John Irwin,
E. P. Humphrey,
John C. Hudson,
John Wright,
Ed. Miskelly,
James G. Smith,
Wm. Laing,
John C. Laing,
Wm. Laing, Jr.,
John Humphrey
John Humphrey got away
from them and was brought
to Rodahaver's who, with his mother, cared for him the four week he suffered
till death relieved him. Their pay was the thanks of his widowed mother.
They killed
Miskelly, who lived at Grainfield,
north of the north fork of the Sappa. He
was on his way home from taking Dowling to his herd of cattle, which were going over the trail north. From
the Sappa they went on to the Beaver, killing four�teen, destroying homes,
outraging women, and doing all that their hellish nature was capable of.
Among the number
killed on the Beaver was Frederick Hemper one of our first settlers. He was in
com�pany with Pat Rathburn when they met some of them Indians who shook hands
with them as they passed them. Pat heard a gun click and threw himself to one
side of the pony and the bullet intended for him went between his body and arm,
through his coat. Hemper was
instantly killed. Pat got into a
draw, where he had protection, and kept them at bay for several hours. When
night came he made his escape. (He after�wards married Hemper's widow.)
Sol Reese was at
Kirwin when the word came that the Indians were on a raid. He traveled the 75
miles that night to his place near Jackson, on the Prairie Dog, came on to
Oberlin ill the morning and got some Men to go with him and he followed the
Indians, caught up with three, north of the north fork of the Sappa and was able
to get one of them which Sol scalped. Sol went on with the troops as scout,
staying with them twenty days.
The settlers came
into Oberlin and stayed till all danger was over from more Indians getting away
from the territory. They dug rifle pits and prepared for further trouble, as re�ports
of a threatening nature came in most over every day. We also looked for trouble
from Horse thieves s as there were some here just before the raid and there were
some fine teams: of horses and mules that had lately been brought in and had
escaped the In�dians. All suspicions characters were made to leave the town and
pickets were kept. out of nights. The men would go and kill the first calf they
came to. The women baked bread day and night, Uncle Billy Love heading the beef
supply and Aunt Mandy, his wife,
the cooking or
the beer,
bread I and coffee at Rodehaver's. At
Captain Allen's store was as big a crowd engineered by the Captain and his
capable wife.
They fetched in
the dead and put them in the schoolhouse, made pine boxes, wrapped them in
sheets and laid them to rest in the cemetery on the hill. The families went east
to their friends as soon as the money could be sent to them to come. Quite a
number of our settlers, that es�caped the raid, left our country for, east, but
lots more came in that fall and took their place.
The last
legislature appropriated fifteen hundred dollars for a monu�ment for those
killed in Decatur County. The
bill was put through by J. D. Flanigan, our representative.
The summer of '79
the people were getting anxious for the county to be organized. Two hundred and
fifty voters signed a petition to the gover�nor of our state, John P. St. John,
asking that Decatur County be organized, showing by the census taken by John
Neaves, that there were fifteen hundred inhabitants in the county. He granted
their petition, appointing Oberlin temporary county seat and J. B. Hitchcock,
Frank Kim�bal and George W. Shoemaker com�missioners and Ed. Stillson county
clerk.
The first meeting
of the county commissioners was held December 15, 1879, the business transacted
was or�dering special election to be held the 3rd of February, 1880, to decide
where the county seat should be, and to elect officers for the county, to hold
till the regular election, which was in the fall. They appointed voting places
at:
Hemp Sherrads for
the eastern part of the county.
On the Beaver, at Mrs. Mary Hemper's.
Bassettville, Bassettville school house.
Prairie Dog, George Shoemaker school house.
Jennings, Jennings school house.
Oberlin,
Oberlin school house.
Decatur Center was
Oberlin's only opponent in the contest. Oberlin, on the 6th day of February
1880, was declared the county seat of Decatur County by a majority of 56 votes. The officers
elected were:
Commissioners,
Frank Kimball, Henry Clare and J, C. Johnston. County Clerk, N. G. Addleman.
Register of Deeds, Geo, W, Keys, Probate Judge, Luther Brown. Sheriff, W. A.
Frasicr. Treasurer, George A. Metcalf. County Attorney, Ed. M. Bowman. Clerk
District Court, W. A, Colvin. Representative, M, A. Conkling. Coroner, Dr,
Street, Surveyor, Lyle L, Bishop,
Frasier appointed
C. E, Ayers deputy. Ayers got into trouble with Sam McNeal and in the shooting Ayers killed McNeal. Ayers was acquitted, as
he had shot in self de�fense.
At the regular
election in the fall of 1880 the officers elected were:
Representative, D.
B, Stone.
County Clerk, Homer D, Colvin,
Treasurer, John B. Hitchcock.
County Attorney, L. G. Parker.
Sheriff, Chas. F. Ayers.
Sup. Pub, Inst., D, W, Burt.
Probate Judge, Luther Brown.
Register of Deeds, Geo. W. Keys.
Clerk of District Court, D. Floyd.
Surveyor, Wm.
W. McKay
The summer of 1880
was a crop failure, and John P, St. John went in again a Governor, on
the dry
ticket, and the men were supposed to be as dry as the ground.
May 1881 the U. S.
Land Office was located at Oberlin with Thomas I
H. Cavanaugh (who died at Tacoma, Washington, the
fore part of Sept. 1909 as register, and C. P. Chandler of Wamego, Kansas, as
Receiver.
September 11th
1883, the Land office at Kirwin was consolidated with Oberlin and stayed here
until Feb�ruary 5th, 1894, when it was moved to Colby, Thomas County, Kansas.
The fall of 1881
Avers killed John Henry and wounded ----- Gaston.
After that we had
quiet times.
HISTORY
0F OBERLIN by MRS. HARVIE
Oberlin was staked
out in April by J, A, Rodehaver in 1871 on the north one hundred acres of the SW
1/4 of 1-3-29, which land was settled on by J. A. Rodehaver, April
29th, 1873; made proof December 1st, 1873. The first house built was a log room,
16x18 feet, shingle roof and board floor, the first in the county. J, A, Van
Wormer of Lawrence came on the 14th day of April, '74, and in the summer of
'74 built a frame 16x24 ft studding. The timbers hewn by hand and hauled from
sixteen miles up the South Sappa. He put in a store in the lower room and lived
in the upper room, First U. S. Mail, July 3rd, 1874; postmaster, JS. A.
Rodehaver.
In the spring of
1877, J. A. Rodehaver bought logs from John Stiner and put up a blacksmith shop
on the lots south of the Maddox drug store and Jack Brooks was our village
blacksmith till the summer of 1878 when a Mr. Jones took his place (as Jack
loved a team of mules too strongly that the government had to shut him up for
two years to cure him). The next
building to go up was our school house.
It was built near
where the mill is now and was of hewn logs got out by Matthew Montgomery who
lived twelve miles down the Sappa on the claim since owned by Mr. Conger and the
rafters and poles for the roof were hauled by J. E. Love and W. E. Ufford from
the west line of the County on the South Sappa on land which has been known as
the Evan's (Evan') ranch of late years. It was finished with four windows, home
made seats and door and was used for a while with a dirt floor and was used
also for church services, J. A. Rodehaver's house having been used for that
purpose heretofore. The first
school taught in the schoolhouse was taught by Court Miller, the winter of '77
and ' 78, a three month term. The summer of '78 Miss Eva VanCleave
taught. The first school taught was
taught by George Worthington in a dugout on the NE 1/4 1-2-29 then owned J. A.
Vanwormer, afterward by John Hitchcock, the winter of 1876.
These were all subscription schools and we paid the sum
of one dollar per month for each scholar. We did not have other people taxed to educate our children.
The first frame residence was built by George Colby the fall of 1878 and occupied the ground where the
Colby block stands now. The
house stands one block west and is now occupied by J. Young.
In the spring of '78 G. Webb Bertram
came from Beloit, our first lawyer and Capt. Allen built his two-story sod
store and in the fall he built a frame room.
Our first doctor was A. W. Bariteau from Maryville, Mo., and he built
a drug store the fall A '78. Maddox
& Son built their drug and occupied it in the spring of '79, R. A.
Marks started the first lumberyard
in January '79. J.
A. R Rodehaver built the
Oberlin House the winter of '79
and moved to
it the latter part of March.
The 7th of January '79, Oberlin Allen was born, the first white child born
in Oberlin. The summer of �79 there
was a number of buildings put up, Persering two-story store, Moody saloon, A. J.
Allen store, Mix saloon, Wilson law office, Mrs. Tinder millinery, Bowman
& Johnson law of�fice (used for the Herald, the first paper printed in
Oberlin, -- now the annex of the Presbyterian church), (also noted for the
killing and shoot�ing of John Henry by Charlie Ayers, sheriff.) The first
jewelry man was Eustis. He kept his small stock of goods in the Maddox Drug
Store.
The first paper plant was fetched in from Mankato, Jewell County, by James
Humphrey who came in '79 with the St. John Site Company. But when Humphrey saw
the start Ober�lin had he was largely instrumental in getting Knowles and
Chapman to I got an interest in
Oberlin and move' their buildings to Oberlin and St. John was a city of the
past, and the Herald is still with us.
Our first bank was started by R. A. Marks in the Van Wormer building in June
1880, a private affair, incorporated and called "The Oberlin
Bank," February, 1880,
The first frame church in the county was the Presbyterian church dedicated August 9th, 188; Rev. Timothy Hill, D. D. of Kansas City, preached the sermon and Rev. John Wilson offered dedicatory prayer and Rev. John A. Halin from Grain field assisted in the services. First installation of Rev. Wilson, Sept. 12th 1886 Trustees-charter granted, Feb. 1882; John B. Colt, Joseph Clark, R. 0. Kindig, N. A. Stever, R. C. Doom. The first Presbyterian sermon was preached in J. A. Rodehaver's House by the Rev. John Wilson, June 2801, at 2 p. m., 1876, nothing more being done to start a church until April `79 the Presbytery of Solomon instructed Rev. John Wilson to labor in Decatur County under commission from the board of Home Missions. Mr. Wilson arrived on the field May 1479. The church was organized Jan. 11, 1880, with the following members Mrs. Alma Churchill, Cedar Falls, Ia., Rachel J. Wilson, Beloit, Kans.; Mr. Wm. F. Colton, Salina, Kans.; Mrs. Flora S. Colton, Central, St. Louis, Mo.; Mr. Joel Gardiner, M. E. LeMarr, Ia.; Mrs. Emma Gardiner, M. E. LaMarr, Ia.; Mr. J. B. Colt, Gong., Leavenworth, Kans.; Mrs. Mary Allen, on profession; Master Joseph E. Wilson, on profession.
Township
Formation History
Thanks to Reva Marshall and the Decatur County Clerk
for providing us with this information.
The first election was help February 3, 1880. There were 6 precincts or townships set up for the election. They were Grant, Beaver, Bassettville, Oberlin, Prairie Dog and Jennings. The following gives townships and dates they were formed.
Center and Custer were formed in 1880.
Olive was formed in 1882.
Garfield
was formed in 1884.
Logan was formed in 1885
Allison, Harlan, and Lincoln
were formed in 1886.
Altory, Cook, Liberty, and Summit were formed in 1887.
Finley was formed in 1889.
Sherman was formed in 1890.
Pleasant Valley and
Dresden were formed in 1892.
Lyon was formed in 1894.
Sappa was formed in
1902.
Roosevelt was formed in 1908.
Oberlin City was separated from
Oberlin Township in 1908.
1880 Original Townships
Thanks to Reva Marshall and the Decatur County Clerk for providing us with this information.
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