Lincoln County

Builders: Mrs. Eva (Trask) Crawford

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By Thelma J. McMullen
Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, September 21, 1939

A delightful surprise was in store for this writer when she interviewed Mrs. Eva Crawford the evening preceding the latter's sixty-eighth birthday anniversary which occurred September 6.

Mrs. Crawford, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Trask, was "the third white child born in Lincoln County." Moreover, she was reared in a log cabin just four miles northwest of the place which my grandfather, E.M. Baughn of Los Angeles, homesteaded about sixty years ago ' the place which was, incidentally, the home of this writer for 19 years.

We felt a new pride in the little country school of childhood days when we were told by this charming lady that she too attended the Pottersburg school, in the tiny long building which preceded the present structure.

We have reason to believe that Pottersburg was named after A.S. Potter, elected county clerk in Lincoln's first county election, the last of 1870. Our supposition is based on the following facts: we have at hand an article stating that the second road to be charted in Lincoln County ran from Pottersburg to the county seat; further more we remember having read a document in the Pottersburg school files which stated that a Mr. Potter deeded certain land to District 19 in Grant township to be used for the site on which to build and maintain a school.

Lincoln County was just getting a brave start as an incorporated unit when the Trasks were blessed with a little daughter, Eva, in 1871. The stories which we read and hear today concerning the pioneers and Indians, that seem remote and fantastic to us, were experiences of stark realism to Mr. Trask and many another brave settler like him. An interesting story of encounters with the Indians which Mr. Harry Trask, Mr. Solomon Humbarger, Mr. Dick Alley and Mrs. William Earl experienced in May 1869, appears in Adolph Roenigk's "Pioneer History of Kansas." The most daring and most horrid escapades which figured in the building of Lincoln county preceded Mrs. Crawford's birth. The tragedies and the glory of pioneer days in Kansas were all so much a part of the family, however, that she would naturally feel herself a mutual part of the whole fascinating and intricate design built by trial and error ' just as we who were born in 1917 cannot help feeling that we played a part in that tragic era.

Far from dull are the stories stored in Mrs. Crawford's memory, hers was a new world, so to speak, trying to keep on its feet once it had gained an upright position. Her father's generosity was largely responsible for ridding Lincoln County of the menaces which threatened the welfare of civilization, and her own generation did much toward the development of that which had been won over.

One of the earliest incidents in the memory of Mrs. Crawford concerns the last Indian scare which occurred in the Pottersburg neighborhood in 1876. All of the nearby settlers and their families congregated for protection at the home of Mr. William Harlow, father of our present Clerk of Court in Lincoln, Mr. Ernest D. Harlow. At that time, Mr. Harlow had charge of the rural post office which had been installed in his home, a two-room stone house, three miles south of Ash Grove and one half mile west of Pottersburg school. Mr. Elbert J. Harlow now resides on his father's homestead.

Other pioneer families in Pottersburg whose children still reside on or near the "old homeplace" or who have real estate interests therein, include: Coffman, Weins, Leaf, Kirschner, Wilcox, Christiansen, Smith, Van Leewen, Jansen, and Errebo, there may be others whom we do not know about.

One of Mrs. Crawford's proudest recollection is in connection with the election of her father, a soldier in his younger days, to the office of sheriff in 1881, a position which he fulfilled faithfully during the four succeeding years.

The saddest recollection of Mrs. Crawford's childhood was the death of Henry Leaf's little four-year-old son, Jimmy, which resulted from a bite inflicted by a rattlesnake in full view of several school children one evening as the child ran to meet his sister, Ida, who was Mrs. Eva Crawford's closest chum. The neighbors tried to suck out the poisonous venom from the wound and a chicken was killed in the hope that its warm flesh would draw the poison to the surface. All attempts to save little Jimmy's life were to no avail and he was wrapped in the cloak of Eternal slumber before the next sunrise.

Mrs. Crawford's first school teacher was Mrs. John Smith. Mrs. Smith was the mother of the Mr. John Smith who works for the Salina Journal, and of Hilas Smith, now of Beloit, who was the first superintendent of the Public High School at Sylvan Grove; one of her daughters, Mrs. Mabel Huffman of Salina, is also remembered by many people in Lincoln County. We are not personally acquainted with the names of the other Smith children, all of whom will be remembered by the old timers who knew them well. The Smith homestead, which is now farmed by Tony Zachgo, is across the road from the Pottersburg school.

Those who learned the "3-R's" in the log building of former days that was eventually destroyed by flames were obliged to sit on long benches  one against the north wall and one against the south wall. Two-inch pine boards served for desks; everybody's books were piled in side by side. "The beginners sat on small chairs in from of the desks. The teacher sat the west end of the building, an old-fashioned wood-burning heater occupied the center of the room, and a door in the east wall formed the single exit.

The late Mr. A.T. Biggs of Barnard was a favorite among all the school children while he was county superintendent. He not only took an active part in the children's games during recesses, but he would eat supper in one of the nearby homes; all the patrons and their children would return to the school after chores for a delightful evening of fun. Mrs. Crawford's eyes twinkled as she recalled that "we always looked forward to a big day when we saw Mr. Biggs coming."

Mrs. Crawford is of the opinion that all of her classmates who remained in Lincoln County, Mr. Oren Harlow is the only one still living.

A prairie fire, which swept the countryside when Mrs. Crawford was very young, burned just to the Trasks' log house and went out after merely charring some of the logs slightly. Mr. Trask, having placed his wife and little daughter on a horse, led the horse into a nearby plowed field to escape possible danger from the flames. After the Trask family was forced to lay in the plowed ground while their granary, barn, feed, hogs, and chickens were consumed by hissing tongues of fire.

The Trask family were numbered among the old timers who endured the grasshopper plague. Mrs. Trask took the canvas sheet top from a covered wagon and placed it with some blankets over her vegetable garden. As soon as it became apparent that they were being chewed by the insects, the covers were removed and the garden was left to the mercy of the grasshoppers. When the grasshoppers moved on, numerous holes in the ground were all that remained of what had been an onion patch.

Although the dust storms were not so severe as they have been in recent years, frequent strong winds cause the rich silt dirt to drift level with the four-foot stone wall surrounding Mr. Trask's field. "We never could figure how it all got there," Mrs. Crawford concluded.

Other living members of Mrs. Crawford's immediate family include her brother, Mr. Dan Trask of Kim, Colorado, and her sister, Mrs. Will Lessor of Wakeeney.

Mrs. Crawford is the mother of eight children, two of whom are deceased; four of them live in Lincoln county, and two reside elsewhere in the state.

Mrs. Crawford, an invalid, is deeply grateful to all who call on her in the home of her daughter, Mrs. Earl Long, three miles North of Lincoln. Because she is one of the most lovable and cheerful characters it has been our privilege to meet, we venture to say that Mrs. Crawford's visitors are doubly benefited after calling on her.

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