Dickinson County History
"Around Newbern Township", Dec. 1884, Abilene Reflector
Note: This was published in the Jan. 8th, 1885 issue of the Abilene Reflector and written by the correspondent from Newbern Twp. for that paper
Your correspondent from Newbern Twp. has been spending the holidays visiting friends and
has universally found them prosperous
and happy.
On invitation we spent Christmas with
C. RUGH,
one of the jolliest and best men in the
county, and his wife, who is an exemplary woman, is well versed in the culinary art, as her table demonstrated
and can entertain company as well as
any woman in the world. She received
on this occasion a visit from her Sunday
school class, consisting of ten young
ladies from Abilene. Mrs. Rugh has
been a faithful attendant of the Lutheran
Sunday school at Abilene for many
years, and her worth was amply demonstrated on Christmas by the many
gifts that were bestowed upon her by
her class. Mr. and Mrs. Rugh, who are
Pennsylvanians by birth, spent several
years in Ohio, coming to Kansas about
seven years ago. since which time they
have been very prosperous, and are now
the happy possessors of 320 acres of fine
land, which is well improved and makes
them a most desirable home. Mr. Rugh
is five miles from Abilene, and takes
an active interest in any cause that
tends to the production of good. He
has a true christian family, who are
well educated, and who look upon this
life as being but a preparation for the
life to come. Christmas was a pleasant
day to all present, and wishing them
many more years of prosperity we bid
them adieu. Calling upon
MR. SHATTO,
we found him enjoying the cold weather sitting by his stove improving his
leisure time by reading. On interrogating him we learned that he came from
Missouri to Kansas in 1877. with only
a team to start with. Like many others who came here poor, he had some
hard times, but perseverance has put
him in comfortable circumstances, and
he is now entirely out of debt, has a
pleasant home and is actually worth be
tween four and five thousand dollars.
His good wife has stood by his side in
prosperity and adversity and has proven
herself to be a most excellent woman,
and with their two obedient children
they are indeed a happy family. Leaving our friends we wandered to the
home of
ADAM KORN,
where we were hospitably entertained
during the day. Mr. and Mrs. Korn
came from Wisconsin to Kansas in
1877 and settled on raw prairie. He,
unlike some others, had some money to
begin with, being worth all told about
$500, a meager sum compared to what
he is now worth. For the first few
years crops were not very good and yet
he has cleared some money each year
above all his expenses. He now owns
five hundred and sixty acres of choice
land, all in one body, upon which he
has raised in the last three years about
fourteen thousand bushels of wheat and
twelve thousand bushels of corn, an average of 23 bushels of wheat and 40
bushels of corn to the acre. Last year
he raised 24 acres of millet which yield
ed 35 bushels of seed to the acre, oats
averaged about 45 bushels. He has 40
acres of as good tame grass as you ever
saw. On this large farm Mr. Korn has
67 head of cattle, 15 horses, 130 hogs,
about 5000 bushels of wheat in the
granary, besides a great quantity of
other grains, about 1300 fruit trees, one
half of which are bearing; he also has
grapes, raspberries, &c, and thousands
of forest trees. Mr. K. was married in
1874 to a Miss Stevens, who is a woman
with no superior. They are now the
fond parents of four bright children and
have property worth from $25,000 to
$30,000, all of which, save $3,500 they
have made in Dickinson county, and as
a natural result they think this is one
of the greatest countries in the world.
Who would not think the same? We
next met
NELSON FRIZ
who came to Kansas from Michigan
about six years ago. Mr. Friz is rather
a quiet unobtrusive man, but a deep
thinker, very intelligent, always agree
able and pleasant, and one of our most
prosperous citizens. He is much pleased
with this country, likes the climate,
and says that Kansas is far superior to
any country he has yet seen for all kinds
or fruit but peaches. Mr. Friz has 850
acres of well improved land, a fine residence, and has just completed a fine
barn, 44 by 51 feet, at a cost of $1100.
He has had good crops for the last
three years, one 40 acre field averaging
37 bushels per acre. We would like to
speak of his large orchard, consisting
of many varieties of trees, but space
forbids, and we will hurry on by saying
that he has averaged above all expenses
since he came to the "Garden of the
West" $1,500 a year, but in the midst
of his prosperity he has had the misfortune to lose his excellent companion,
who died one year ago, leaving him four
children, two boys and two girls, all of
whom Mr. F. is taking much pains to
educate; the oldest boy graduated from
the Abilene high school two years ago
and the younger will be one of the
graduates next spring. Success to this
worthy family. With
JAMES PURDY
we enjoyed ourselves listening to his
stories concerning his early adventures
in Kansas, he having come here in 1855
settling in the eastern part of the state.
He was well acquainted with, the famous John Brown and spent much time
with him. Mr. Purdy came to the far
west with $25 in money; after serving
his country for four years, he came to
Dickinson county, where he first met
his present wife, Miss Creech, to whom
he was married in 1865. They settled
on an 80 acre homestead on Turkey
creek, where they were surrounded by
the broad prairies with very few settlers,
and where they roasted their buffalo
meat when they could get it, and endured the privations of pioneer life, at
one time having only enough provisions
to last them three days, but determined
to "grow up with the country," they
struck to their old homestead, and now
own 358 acres of fine bottom land, for
which he would not take $50 an acre,
well fenced, with good buildings, large
orchard of 800 bearing apple trees, 500
peach,100 cherry, pears, plums, grapes,
blackberries, etc. He takes quite an
interest in raising stock, and now has
60 head of cattle, 40 of which are milk
cows, 5 horses and 100 hogs. Mr. P. is
beyond want and is certainly destined
to be a wealthy man. We spent the
Sabbath in pleasant conversation at the
home of our genial friend
MILE HUSTON,
who at one time owned a poor clay farm
of 37 acres in Ohio, which he sold, and
after paying his debts, moved to the
best part of Kansas and purchased one
of the finest quarter sections in Newbern township. He has been in delicate health for a number of years and
consequently has not been able to improve his quarter as he otherwise would.
His farm was all in raw prairie seven
years ago, but now he has about half
under cultivation, he has a great many
trees, and will soon have an abundance
of fruit, he is out of debt and well
worth $7,000. Long may he live to en
joy the fruits of his labors". Spending
a day with
JOEL HERSH,
we gleaned much information. Joel is
a good man to stop with and his wife is
one of the best cooks in the west, and
her table is always bountifully supplied.
In 1878 he came to Kansas and settled
upon his present fine farm south of Abilene; he settled when there were no
improvements, broke the sod, put out
an orchard and in three years some of
the apple trees began to bear. He owns
one half section of land upon which he
has buildings to the amount of $2500;
has 130 acres of pasture under fence;
had 110 acres of wheat last year which
averaged 25 bushels per acre, and 65
acres of corn which averaged 40 bushels,
lie has good warm houses for his stock
in which he takes great pride. Mr. H.
has a pleasant home and would not sell
his farm for $40 an acre. We next
called upon our old friend,
WILL SHERWOOD
and find that he is one of the old settlers
of this county, having come here 14
years ago and homesteaded 80 acres,
to which he has since anded 320 more.
He has 200 acres under cultivation, 7
acres tame grass, 5 acres in orchard, 76
head of cattle, 19 horses, 115 hogs. He
came here single but soon realized the
truth of that scriptural expression, "It
is not good for man to be alone," and
they now have seven children for whom
they are well able to provide. Will has
served his township as trustee for a
number of years and has the good will
of all. Up is yet in his youth, being 36
years of age, and is calculated for any
business. While he is an open hearted,
liberal man, he has yet managed his
business affairs in such a manner that
he is now able to take the world easy.
We spent New Years day with
COL. L. SWIGART
at his comfortable home, and as usual,
found his commodious house overflowing with company, all of whom enjoyed
the day and never was the old gentle
man in a better mood. The Col. has
been in Kansas six years and is well
known throughout the county. There
were quite a number came from Ohio
with the Col., and as there were very
few houses to be had near where they
bought land, they were welcomed to
Colonel's "dug out," and in it were to
be found some nights as many as thirty
persons; but at the end of six months
he had completed a good residence and
moved in it resolved to make this his
home the remainder of his days. He
owns 240 acres of land, most of which
is under cultivation. He has not raised
less than 600 bushels of wheat any year
since he came here; had 2000 bushels
last year, an average of 24 bushels per
acre, and Ins corn tor the last two years
has averaged over 50 bushels. He is
in easy circumstances and enjoys his
lounge, reading his paper, smoking his
cigar, and talking politics. He has a
large family of twelve children, all of
whom, but one, are in Kansas, and sixteen grand-children, all living. Col.
owes much of his success to his very
excellent wife of whom too much can
not be said in praise.
The Reflector will pardon me for
taking up so much of its valuable space.
The examples given above are but fair
samples of what the farmers are do
ing in our township. I have often
heard it said in the east that if a farmer
cleared a hundred dollars a year he was
doing well; I am satisfied that the farmers of Newbern township have averaged
over a thousand dollars a year for the
last five years. Surely that old gentle
man was prophetic when he said, "Go
west, young man, and grow up with the
country. A. B. C.
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