Histories

[Note: I have included the account written by my father’s sister, Mildred, regarding the Allen family’s trip from Ohio to Parkerville, Kansas, in 1884 and how they celebrated Fourth of July in 1894 in this village. --Naomi Katherine Allen McDiffett]

During the final days of preparation for leaving the homestead on Ice Creek, I was parked at Aunt Sarah’s. They lived on a hill. Before that tho’ a sewing woman (I think it was Delia Moore Haley) came to the house. She made me two nice new dresses for the trip to Kansas. I was picked up at Aunt Mags on the Pike. I don’t know who took the family in to Ironton. It must have been Uncle Harrison or Uncle Med. (Uncle Med had rented our homestead.) The family was dumped at Aunt Sorilda’s to await the coming of the boat for Cincinnati. Our cousins Millie and Margaret Markin went with us to the wharf. We waited ‘til midnight for the Katy Stockdale but went on the Granite State (am I right?). We kiddies were asleep on the baggage under the tables when they told us the boat was in. Ethan was the youngest of eight children and was running everywhere. It took all of us to keep track of him.

We boarded the train at Cincinnati. Ten of us & Illa Spicer. It took 3 days and nights to reach Parkerville, Kansas. I was car sick all the way. Somewhere two of the boys had lost their new overcoats bought especially for western climate.

We were received (not cordially) at my Aunt Harriet Stivers who lived over her store. She had 5 rooms and an attic. Her bachelor bro. Newt Dilley lived with her and managed the store. Emma Johnson had come from the east and married Dr. Dan Hall. Newt Dilley west east and married her sister Mary Johnson. Then Candace came out, lived with the Dilleys and married James Sharp.

We reached Parkerville in December 1884. Lived until March over the Post Office in two rooms. Wonder who was postmaster? Was it the Morgans? We would lie on our beds Sat. nights and watch the dancing at the Seth Hotel next door. Ad Bruce visited us while we lived in 2 rooms.

He must have started to school. My teacher (I believe) was Emma Johnson Hall. But we soon moved to the farm owned by Harriet Stivers. How many acres? Three miles out. Aaron Parks was very reluctant about moving off of it. We had 3 rooms. The kitchen roof leaked badly. We were two miles from school Hurino. The name was made up out of the school board’s names. Hu for Mr. Hurley, ri for Mr. Rider, no for Mr. Nordeen. Our first teacher as I remember was Sue Downing. She wore the same dress all year.

Mr. & Mrs. Rider came to see us the first day at the farm. They lived east across Laird’s Creek and had 2 daughters and one son grown up. Helen, Maggie and John. Other neighbors at that time were Prescotts and Lunds. While we were living in 3 rooms two of the Keys came to visit. I think it was Uncle Coleman and Uncle John Keys.

Harry Simmons was to build a new house.

Note: This particular writing ended here, but following are remembrances from some of her other writings.

The biggest event of the year was a picnic at Parkerville Park. Of course, it meant the entire day. The park was a block square, grassy and well shaded. It was fenced with posts supporting a heavy iron chain. The speaker’s platform and seat were provided but no picnic tables.

Four girls in the family naturally needed new dresses for the occasion. Women never have the right thing to wear already handing in their wardrobe. A new dress meant a new hat and shoe, too.

Aunt Mildred tells about one dress that she remembers she had. It was of buff chambray. It was ruffled and trimmed in Valenciennes lace edging. She had ironed at least three starched petticoats to wear under the dress. They had been all tucked, ruffled, and hung from the waist. They were starched so everything gave a nice rustling sound when she walked.

When breakfast was over, her father would say, "Now I want you all to be ready so we can go early. By ten o’clock we can tell what the day will be like." The team was hitched to the lumber wagon with one spring seat, a board with a quilt on it, a chair or two, and thy were ready for the three mile trip.

On arrival they would find that the whole countryside was already gathering. The platform had been decorated with flags and bunting. The young girls would promenade around the park to show off their clothes and see who all was there.

The program with Dan Rider in charge consisted of the Fife and Drum Corps led by Ham Rinard. But the main event for the younger ones was the picnic dinner.

Uncovering the clothes basket that contained the menu for the day found it full of fried chicken, fresh pickled beets, hard boiled eggs colored in the beet juice, cabbage salad, cottage cheese, fresh applesauce from Red June or Early Harvest apples from their orchard, wild plum or wild grape jelly, and the big watermelon cake made by the mother’s prize recipe and baked in two round cake pans. It was decorated with red sugar for the center and raisins for seeds. A big tablecloth was spread on the ground and everyone sat around it. Horses were hitched to the big chain fence all around the park. The flies joined in, of course.

The Methodist Church group served homemade ice cream. Milk and eggs had been donated by farmers around the area. Jim Parker would yell, "Right this way to get your lemonade, made in the shade by an old maid, and stirred with a spade!" Proceeds went to the Baptist Church.

In the afternoon they often had a prominent, out-of-town speaker. One time they had Carrie Chapman Catt (She must have been brought in by Mildred’s Aunt Harriett Stivers and Harry Simmons for they were strong for Prohibition and Women’s Rights.) Carrie Nation and Carrie Chapman Catt were two different people. Carrie Nation was born in 1846 and named Carry Amelia Moore. She died in 1911. Carrie Chapman Catt was born in 1859 and died in 1947. However, they were from the same area of Kansas and shared the same ideals and values.

If the girls were permitted to stay for the evening, they would watch the square dancing. However, for the Allen girls to appear on a public platform would have been a disgrace to the family. Fireworks climaxed the day. They were wonderful.

What a day it was! The cows went unmilked but who cared. The next day everyone was exhausted. However, they had a whole year to rest up for the next one. In later years a band was organized and the Allen boys played in it and helped out with the celebration.

Parkerville Homecoming Celebration

By Naomi Katherine Allen McDiffett

While we were growing up, it was our custom every summer to attend the Homecoming Celebration in Parkerville, Kansas. Because this small village with its people was dear to our parents, we rarely missed the occasion. This settlement approximately twelve miles northwest of Council Grove was the destination of our father, his parents, and his brothers and sisters when they came from Ohio to settle in Kansas in 1884 when Father was only a lad of ten years old. He grew up on a farm there and met and fell in love with our mother in this vicinity. Our mother’s mother and family, the Varners, also settled in Parkerville when they came from Ohio to Kansas. As a matter of fact, both Mother and Alberta were born in this village, Mother in 1881 and Alberta in 1901. I understand that when Mother was a young lady, she worked in the post office there. This little corner of the world was unique because the small band of settlers built their town differently. They built their businesses and homes around a square which served as their park and a place to have speakers and entertainment. The blue grass and beautiful large spreading Kansas trees made it a very inviting place. The square was separated from the businesses and homes by a wide street which surrounded the park. They set strong wooden posts in the ground and pulled huge iron chains through hand-whittled holes in the top of each post. These posts and chains served as a hitching post for the horses that pulled the wagons or buggies, whose occupants came to town to visit or to shop.

It was on this special day, Parkerville Homecoming, that the farmers came from far and near with their potluck to join the others for a bountiful feast. My sisters and I weren’t really so thrilled about this special day except for the fact that we got to see our great grandpa and our great aunts and uncle with their families. I imagine our joy was in watching our parents enjoying the good visit with the townspeople, relatives, and other friends who had been so dear to them in their earlier years. Naturally, it seemed that we girls were always hungry, so the good food was a treat to us. Just being away from the routine of the farm was also a welcome change. I have heard that there are but a few seniors living there now.

1907 Homestead in Colorado

By Wilma Hotchkiss Hildebrecht

My father heard some new government land in Colorado was being opened to new settlers. It was decided the family would go west. The year was 1907 and I was two and one-half years old. We would be going to land near Seibert in Kit Carson County about one hundred thirty miles east of Denver.

Arrangements for the move were started – raising money, getting machinery, livestock, family and household goods ready and filing some kind of claim papers. Money was raised by selling all the things we were not taking with us.

Mother’s brother, Frank Allen, wife Claudia and children, Ellouise and Reginald, had recently arrived in Kansas from West Virginia. Hoping to settle somewhere in the West, they also made arrangements to move to Colorado.

This was quite an undertaking. Horses, cows, wagons, farm tools, household items, barrels of flour and food – so many things to remember. Apparently it was cheaper to move what we needed than to buy out west, if it were available. The men rode the freight train with equipment and livestock which, for us, was one cow and four horses. Two of the horses were named Flora and Fred and very faithful ones they were, for later they returned to Kansas pulling a covered wagon.

Mother, Claudia, and the four children rode the passenger train, which at this time burned coal and was far from clean. A coal-burning stove in one end of the coach furnished heat. Soot from the engine filtered in around the windowpanes, which in warmer weather could be opened. We arrived in Seibert in March of 1907 in a snowstorm.

The only hotel was our home the first few days. Equipment was unloaded and livestock placed in a corral at the train station. Next morning, imagine the feeling of loss when it was discovered someone had left the gate open and the horses were gone. With so much open rangeland this could be disastrous and certainly there wasn’t any extra money to buy more horses. After two days of hunting, the horses were found. Now the job of moving could begin – but moving to what!!! Nothing was out there but he prairie with wind, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and countless unseen obstacles for homesteaders.

The men went to the claims which were located four or five miles from Seibert. Mile of prairie – no trees — no close houses and no wells. A tent served as a place to sleep while the first building was constructed. This was a rough structure of lumber used to house both families until the individual homes could be built. It later became our barn.

The women and children were to remain at the hotel until the building was ready. Since the hotel left much to be desired plus the problem of handling four children, Mother and Claudia moved to the claim eve4n though nothing but a tent was available. So began our life on the one hundred sixty-acre claim which had been purchased for one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre.

A special plow was necessary to turn sod which was then cut into blocks and used to form walls of the house. Our one-room house was set against a slope giving it the appearance of a partial dugout. The only door was in the east, a window in the north and one in the south end of the room. Flooring was rough wide boards, which was better than many sod houses with dirt floors. Walls were plastered with material from a local gypsum bank. The roof was wide boards covered with roll roofing. Some house had layers of sod on the board roof which made it warmer in winter and some cooler in summer, but would leak if not carefully built. Our only stove for cooking and heating was the potbellied variety with high oven. Coal and cow chips were the fuel. Coal was hauled from Seibert.

Open rafters were partly covered with boards to make more storage space. The iron bedstead had a trundle bed, which pulled out at night and was pushed under the big bed during the day.

A barn was built with one side of the roof so close to the ground that children could climb on it. We probably were told many times to stay off but climbing up an sliding down were a tempting pastime until I became the owner of a large splinter in my posterior. This stopped further adventures on the roof for me. Young as I was, this was something remembered.

Comforts of life were few. Shortage of water, hot sun in summer, wind, lack of trees, rattlesnakes, cactus, howling coyotes, badgers digging into chicken houses, cold winter and sometimes just the loneliness of the prairie must have made people wonder why they came to such a country. It was during these lonely months that mother made some of her loveliest embroidery by the light of a coal oil lamp.

Water was hauled in barrels from the Hawthorne claim. This was a dug well, very deep and equipped with a pump. Dad soon dug a cistern on our claim and cemented it so larger quantities of water could be hauled and poured into it. Water was removed with a rope tied to a bucket.

Laundry and bathing were problems due to scarcity of water and equipment. Water was heated on the stove, clothes scrubbed on a washboard and ironed with andirons. Bathing was done with a small amount of water or by putting children in a washtub. The only means of refrigeration was hanging food in the cistern. Fresh meat was the wild life found on the prairie plus chickens we raised. Deer, antelope, ducks, rabbits were usually available. At that time we had not heard about eating rattlesnakes, if so we could have had a nice supply.

Coyotes were a nuisance during watermelon and cantaloupe seasons as they could select a ripe melon every time and soon destroy a patch. Dad tried putting nearly ripe melons in gunnysacks but the coyotes would tear the sack and split the melon.

Dad earned extra money working as a carpenter in Seibert. Frank Allen worked in a general merchandise store. The families remained on the claim – I suppose the men rode back and forth. Frank later did watch repairing for Seibert and surrounding country.

A few months after we arrived in Colorado, other relatives settled on adjoining claims. Now in addition to the Frank Allens and us were Dr. W. T. Harvey and wife Harriet, who was one of our mother’s sisters. They came from Parkerville, Kansas, Ethan Allen, and unmarried brother of mother’s, my father’s brother Frank and his wife Eva and children, Earl and Hazel from Kelso, Kansas. Doctor Harvey built a frame house but the other families built sod homes. Each homesteaded a claim of one hundred sixty acres and all stayed long enough to obtain title to the land. All but one family returned to Kansas when title was obtained. The Frank Allens remained on their claim for five years then moved to Seibert. At this time Frank was awarded a contract as rural mail carrier, a job he held until retirement in 1936. His wife Claudia was the substitute carrier.

Every settler had several guns always within easy reach. One was loaded and hung over the only outside door. One of ours was a 22-rifle, another a combination double barrel shotgun with a 45-90 rifle barrel. I do not believe guns were really needed as protection from other people, although it surely was considered.

Badgers were a nuisance as they bothered the chickens. With their long sharp claws they soon dug a hole through the sod walls of a chicken house and created havoc. Chickens had to be shut up at night as coyotes came almost to the door of our house and sometimes were found on top of the low chicken house. The howl of a hungry coyote can be a chilling sound.

Antelopes were a common sight as were the jack rabbits with their enormous ears. Claudia Allen’s pet for several years was a young antelope caught after its mother was killed. A hungry coyote finally killed the pet.

It is a wonder some of us were not bitten by rattlesnakes but all escaped. Ellouise tells of the time she and Brother Reginald were playing outside the house when she saw a rattler. Not looking where she was going, Ellouise dragged him through a bunch of prairie cactus. It took Claudia several days to pick the stickers out of Reginald.

Rural mail delivery had not been established in the country around Seibert, so getting mail meant a trip to town by wagon or horseback. Mail usually would be picked up at the time supplies were purchased. When Dad was working in Seibert, of course, he brought it home. In bad weather we did not get mail for several days.

Most religious training was received at home although some Sunday School was held. It was fortunate none of the children in this group of settlers was of school age as the nearest school was in Seibert.

Mother, Allen and I returned to Kansas by train in late summer of 1908. We lived with Mother’s parents at Council Grove until Dad arrived early in October. He started his trip to Kansas about September 21, 1908, in a covered wagon, bringing what remained of the family possessions. When Dad arrived we moved to a small house close to my grandparents. Allen had entered the first grade in Council Grove School. In the spring of 1909, we moved to our farm home five miles west of town.

A man named Magee bought our claim. He also purchased the acreage from Frank Hotchkiss after the original buyer, a Mr. Stephens, could not meet the payments. Each of these claims sold for one thousand dollars.

1912 History of Morris County

Morris County, one of the oldest and most historic in the state, is located in the northeastern section, the 5th west from the Missouri line and the 4th south from Nebraska. It is bounded on the north by Geary and Wabaunsee counties; on the east by Wabaunsee and Lyon; on the south by Chase and Marion, and on the west by Marion and Dickinson. Prior to 1858 this county was a municipal township of the district composed of Wise, Breckenridge and Madison counties. In that year it was organized as Wise county and the following officers were elected: Probate judge, H. J. Espy; surveyor, N. S. Brazleton; supervisors, T. S. Huffaker, Harvey Munkers and Lewis Baum. The first full ticket of county officials was elected in Nov., 1861. In 1859 the sentiment of the state having changed from what it was in 1855 when the county was named Wise in honor of a southern celebrity, the name was changed to Morris in honor of Thomas Morris, United States senator from Ohio. The county seat contest did not come up until 1871, as prior to that time Council Grove had no rival. When Parkerville became an incorporated town it entered the lists for county seat, and an election was called to settle the matter. All sorts of trickery was resorted to by both sides. Men were brought into the county for voting purposes by the hundreds. The population of the county at that time was 2,225. The number of votes cast was 1,312, of which 899 were for Council Grove and 413 for Parkerville. The question was not brought up again.

The Santa Fe trail crossed Morris county and Council Grove was for many years one of the most important points on that famous route. The Kaw trail, one of the hunting routes in use by the Indians, also passed through the county. The land belonged to various tribes of Indians until a reservation was set apart, which included the site of Council Grove. Later the reservation was limited to a small area in the southeastern part of the county known as the "diminished reserve." (See Indians.) The government tried various methods of civilizing the Kaws who occupied these lands. It maintained schools, which no one attended but orphans. It built a number of three-room houses on the reserve, but the Indians quartered their horses in them, and continued to live in wigwams. As long as the Kaws occupied these lands, the settlers, especially at Council Grove, were in more or less apprehension. Perhaps the most serious trouble was in 1859, when the town was visited by 400 armed Kaws. Two white men were wounded and a bloody war was averted only by the Indians giving up the two of their number who did the shooting. They were hanged by the whites. Considerable alarm was caused among the settlers in 1868 by the Cheyennes who came to fight with the Kaws. They were mounted and well armed, but after a skirmish of several hours were forced to retire.

The first white men in the county were missionaries and traders. S. M. Hays, the first trader, located at Council Grove in 1847; Chouteau Bros. in 1848; T. S. Huffaker, a missionary, in 1850; and Columbia Bros. in 1852; J. C. Munkers came in 1854; C. P. Eden, Henry Thornby, Joseph Dunlap and John Warnecke in 1857; June Baxter, William Atkinson, Charles Guenter, J. M. Douglas and John O'Byrne in 1858, and in 1859 the population of the county was about 600 people.

In 1860 the settlers suffered greatly from the drought. Not a single bushel of corn was raised. About 62,000 pounds of food out of the relief supply at Atchison were issued to Morris county people in the winter of 1860. Before there was opportunity to plant another crop the Civil war broke out. The total population did not exceed 800, only 158 of whom were of voting age. They were divided in their sympathies between the North and the South. However, before the close of the war Morris county had furnished 125 Union soldiers. A number of Kaw Indians were enlisted, which raised the total to 180. The following is a list of the military organizations of Morris county which took part in the war either as home guards against the border ruffians or in the regular service: Morris County Rangers, cavalry, Capt. S. N. Wood; Neosho Guards, cavalry, Capt. W. T. Lard; Clark's Creek Rangers, cavalry, Capt. Charles Guenter; Neosho Rangers, cavalry, Capt. S. D. Price; Council Grove Guards, infantry, Capt. R. B. Lockwood. During the war and for a number of years afterward the community was molested by guerrillas and horse thieves and a number of lynchings and murders, justifiable and otherwise, occurred.

Shortly after the close of the war a new influx of settlers came into the county. A little set-back was experienced the same year by the failure to secure the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, which was built about 25 miles to the south. Settlers continued to pour into the county and great herds of cattle were driven in for pasturage. By 1871 large colonies, some of them numbering 150 people, were coming in. A negro colony came in 1874. A disastrous prairie fire swept over the western part of the county in 1873, destroying the grass and growing crops. By 1875 the population had grown to 4,597. In 1880 it was 8,422. The next year there were 200 farm dwellings built at a total cost of $160,000; the value of farm implements in use was over $53,000; the value of live stock, $685,673; there were 75,000 bearing fruit trees and 100,000 young trees not bearing. About one-third of the land had been brought under cultivation. In 1890 the population had increased to 11,381. In the next ten years, when many of the counties in Kansas were losing in population on account of the money panic, hard times, and the boom in the southwestern states, Morris showed a small gain, the number of inhabitants in 1900 being 11,967. The flood of 1903 raised the Neosho river several feet above all recorded high water marks and destroyed considerable property. That of 1908 was serious but not as disastrous as the flood of 1903.

Morris county is divided into 14 townships: Clark Creek, Council Grove, Diamond Valley, Elm Creek, Four Mile, Garfield, Grandview, Highland, Neosho, Ohio, Parker, Rolling Prairie, Valley and Warren. The postoffices are: Burdick, Council Grove, Delavan, Diamond Springs, Dunlap, Dwight, Kelso, Latimer, Parkerville, Skiddy, White City and Wilsey. A line of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad enters in the northwest and crosses southeast through Council Grove. The Missouri Pacific crosses east and west in the south, and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific enters in the northeast and crosses southwest into Dickinson county. There are 107 miles of main track.

The general surface is an undulating prairie, practically all of which is tillable. The bottom lands along the streams average one mile in width and comprise 15 per cent. of the total area. The area of native timber is above the average for the state. All the varieties of wood common to Kansas soil grow along the stream in belts a quarter of a mile in width, and a number of artificial plantings have been made. The Neosho river rises in the western part of the county and flows southeast into Lyon county. It has several tributaries. Clark's creek flows north through the western portion. Limestone underlies the entire county and is extensively quarried and shipped at Council Grove and Parkerville.

The value of farm products is more than $3,000,000 annually, the leading crop being corn, which in 1910 brought $879,127. Oats the same season was worth $87,482; wild grass, $180,000; tame grass, $151,344; millet, $81,390; Jerusalem corn, $75,834; the value of animals sold for slaughter was $1,511,625. The value of all farm products that year was $3,251,523. The total value of all live stock on hand was $2,620,962. The assessed valuation of property was $22,119,714, and the population was 12,397.

Pages 319-322 from volume II of Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed July 2002 by Carolyn Ward.

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