Dickinson County History
CUMBERLAND COUNTIANS IN KANSAS
Where They are Located. How They are Flourishing. Names and Addresses.
By J. Zeamer, editor American-Volunteer, published at Carlisle, Penn., 1884
Six years ago a great many persons left Cumberland county to seek homes in the west, a large
majority of them going to Kansas. As many of
the readers of the Volunteer had friends go that
spring in whom they still feel much interested
and of whom they will be glad to learn something,
we have gone to some trouble to gather a little
information concerning them and lay a portion of
it before our readers in this issue. It will
be remembered that quite a colony, principally Dunkers of the
denomination known as
River Brethren, went with Rev. Jesse Engle,
formerly a citizen of Monroe township, this county. These families, according to the information
in our possession, are now located as follows:
B. Gish, Abilene, Abilene, Dickinson County
John L. Engle, Abilene, Dickinson County
Jerome Engle, Abilene, Dickinson County
Daniel Demmy, Abilene, Dickinson County
E. Hoffman, Belle Springs, Dickinson County
C. Hoffman, Belle Springs, Dickinson County
N. G. Hershey, Belle Springs, Dickinson County
B. B. Engle, Belle Springs, Dickinson County
Jesse Engle, Belle Springs, Dickinson County
J. Forney, Belle Springs, Dickinson County
A. M. Engle, Detroit, Dickinson County
J. Sheets, Detroit, Dickinson County
T. Sheets, Detroit, Dickinson County
J. Brubaker (Sen.), Detroit, Dickinson County
J. Noll, Hope, Dickinson County
Concerning these we have information to the
effect that they have prospered beyond their most
sanguine expectations. Their prosperity, of
course, is according to the means they had when
they reached their destination and according to
the judgment, business capacity and industry they
severally possessed, and in some instances favorble opportunities. With the exception of one
family all have homes of their own, and all are in the
enjoyment of reasonable health and comfort. The
contentment prevailing among them is all that can
be expected with the great change they experienced in breaking away from the old moorings in
the cast and removing so far to the west, probably
all that was desired. Their general prosperity is
the foundation of the contentment they are enjoying, for the majority of the colony have doubled
the wealth they took with them to Kansas while
some of them have trebled theirs. Not a single
family of this colony has returned to the cast, nor
are any likely to return after remaining six years.
A number of them have paid visits to their former
homes within the intervening six years and highly
enjoyed meeting and commingling with their old
friends, but were always glad to return to their
new homes in Kansas.
By referring to the map of Kansas it will be seen
that Dickinson county lies pretty near the central
part of the State on the Kansas river. The Kansas branch of the
Union Pacific railroad passes
through it from cast to west, dividing it nearly in
halves. The county in point of wealth and population is the second in the state. Besides the
above-named Cumberland Countians the following
persons also, several years ago, located there:
Samuel Bricker, Abilene; Chas. C. Hutchinson,
Plympton; Jacob S. Hollinger, Plymptom; Daniel
Keller, Plympton; Daniel Hollinger, Plympton;
Benjamin Kochenauer, Hope; Jacob Stauffer,
Plympton ; Mr. Pyke, Abilene.
Last month, as was noted in these columns, John
O. Dill, Alfred B. Strock, John Kanffman, Solomon
Markley and their families and quite a number of
other persons from Cumberland County, stopped
at Abilene with the intention of locating there.
Nearly a year ago we had the opportunity of taking a good look at Dickinson
county. We went there on other business but enjoyed the scenery
and the meeting of old acquaintances about as
well as if we had gone there expressly for that
pleasure. Arriving at Abilene in the afternoon we
stopped at the Henry House. The character of
our business made it necessary to hunt up the
sheriff. We found him in his office at the Court
House, a large new brick building standing in the
middle of a big lot which had been planted to
corn and which was nearly as tall as corn gets in
Kansas. The sheriff was a Pennsylvanian from
Luzerne county, and learning we were from his
State he took us to the County Treasurer who, he
said, was also a Pennylvanian from Cambria
county. The Treasurer was out but his deputy
was in and he was a Pecnnsylvanian from York
county and had often read the Volunteer. A little while afterwards, on the streets we were in
troduced to Honorable J. S. Hollinger, a Pennsylvanian from Franklin county; still
a little later we met a young man named
Stauffer, brother of Enos Stauffer, of Mt. Holly,
and then we met Sam Bricker, who made
us feel as much at home as if we had dropped in on
him on the hallowed ground of old Silver Spring
itself.
We then took a drive of eighteen miles or
so out south, through one of the most delightful
farming countries we ever saw. It was in the after part of the day and the sun was casting its
shadows across the undulating landscape. Harvest was on the wane, and
on all sides was evidence of its abundance. Immense fields shorn of
their crops by headers or reapers lay all around us,
and the grain was stacked in long stacks on some
suitable rise to await the thresher. Other fields
were yet untouched while still others were partly
there were fences they were of wire or hedges, but
many fields had no fences at all. The whole country around, from horizon
to horizon, was one vast
rolling area of wheat and corn fields, and it was
hard to tell which of the two grains had the
preference. Here and there farm buildings looked
out of clumps of trees of intensely green foilage,
or from behind clusters of wheat stacks; and
now and then we passed orchards which
invariably had only thrifty young trees and no old
ones. There were no woods or hills to interrupt
the view, only an occasional rift in the picture
where a stream held its sluggish course, the rest
was all a satisfying eye-feast. That was Dickinson county as it lay in the soft twilight of July
evening south of Abilene; the nest day we rode 10
miles north-east of the town, with eyes wide open
and hungry, and found it much the same kind of
a country with probably a little more raw land.
Over that Kansas landscape we rode
and thought how wise were the Pennsylvanians--and others--who had come and there
anchored,
and were building themselves homes and carving
out fortunes for themselves and their children.
Return to
Dickinson Co. KHHP
|
� 2011-2012 Kansas History and Heritage Project
|