Bourbon County Biographies
"The Why of Fort Scott"
J. CALDWELL.
Two wagons loaded with his family of seven, and
his household goods, brought J. Caldwell to Fort
Scott, December 12th, 1858. As there was no house
to rent, he bought two lots and a log house, at what
is now the corner of Little and Wall streets, from C.
B. Wingfield, who was leaving for Texas. Mr.
Caldwell proved up on a claim just east of these lots
and went into farming.
He followed Mr. Wingfield as mail carrier over
the five routes out of Fort Scott, viz: Osage Mission,
Westpoint, Missouri; Crawford Seminary (Presbyterian Indian School,) Mapleton, and Marmaton.
His son, Tom, then 12 years old, carried the mail to
Osage Mission, with permission from Washington.
Of course these mails were carried on horseback,
the roads then not allowing it to be carried by
wagon.
Mr. Caldwell left a son, Thomas, of this city, and
a daughter, Mrs. J. Lambert, of Bakersfield, California.
J. S. CALKINS.
Mr. Calkins seems to have gone directly into business here, upon arrival from New York, in 1857,
for he immediately built himself a frame store
building on Bigler St.,near Weir. This business was
somewhat varied, clothing, agent for a New York
Commission firm, and agent for the American
Tract and Bible Society. He supplied Bibles, hymn
books and other books for the Sunday School, then
held in the Post hospital on the Plaza. He with Mrs.
A. McDonald and Mrs. Wm. Smith were the first
members of the Presbyterian Church, when organized in 1859, and he was made an elder. He left
Fort Scott soon after the war.
W. T. CAMPBELL.
In 1857, Mr. Campbell and his family started for
Kansas in three covered wagons. He also brought
with him a herd of blooded stock. They stopped at
Leavenworth for three or four months, and later
came on down to Barnesville. In January, a delegation went to Barnesville, to pursuade him to come
to Fort Scott and take charge of the Free State
Hotel, which he did and soon after his arrival, gave
an opening ball at the hotel. Amusements were
few in those early days and a ball was quite an
event. It was not long before he was appointed U.
S. Marshal, an office that was nothing of a sinecure in those lawless times; as example, the trouble
with Brockett, in this same hotel, during his proprietorship, spoken of elsewhere.
He pre-empted a homestead, where now is Athletic Park, and built his home here. When the war
broke out, he organized a company which later
made part of the famous 6th Cavalry. After the
war, Mr. Campbell returned to his fruit farming.
He died November 9th, 1877, on the land he home-steaded.
A. H. CAMPBELL.
A. H. Campbell came with his father. W. T. Campbell, in 1857, to Fort Scott, to do his part in blazing
the trail to future prosperity for the little town, and,
like the other young men, he put his whole energy
into growing up with it; and, incidentally, doing all
in his power to keep the town a little ahead, that
he might have something to grow up to. Mr. Campbell was a member of the 6th Kansas Cavalry. He
had a horse killed under him at Cane Hill, was taken
prisoner and sent to Little Rock. There some resident asked the privilege of
keeping him. Lieutenant Campbell asked him on his release why he was
so kind to him. He replied that a nephew recognized him as a captor of his, the
nephew, in an earlier skirmish. In the morning Lieut. Campbell,
passing the squad of prisoners asked them if they
had had any breakfast. On their reply in the negative, Lieut. Campbell said, "All right I will see that
you get some,"-cast your bread upon the waters.
One night while in Little Rock, his host asked
Lieut. Campbell if he might put another person in
his room for the night. He made a pallet on the
floor and brought in, much to Lieut. Campbeirs
surprise, Quantrell. The recognition was mutual.
Quantrell said: "If I had taken you prisoner, I
would have had you shot." Lieut. Campbell said:
"O, you are joking." Quantrell replied very emphatically, "Yes I would."
In 1863 Lieut. Campbell raised a company, which
was joined to the 14th Kansas Cavalry. Later he
was placed on Gen. Thayer's staff at Fort Smith,
as assistant Inspector of the Frontier District. He
was living at the time of his death on part of the
land homesteaded by his father, and was carrying
on his father's work, fruit farming.
Mr. Campbell and B. P. McDonald built a one-room house, about where the Berner Building now
stands. They were to do the work, and C. W. Goodlander was to do the "bossing." Both of them were
afraid to climb a ladder, Mr. Goodlander says he
had to do most of the work, and they the "bossing."
Wm. Smith lived in this house, while he was building his own house on Scott Avenue. Mr. Campbell's
three children, Robert B., George, and Alberta, are
now living in Fort Scott.
ALFRED COSTON.
Mr. Coston came first to Mound City, in 1859,
with all his family and goods loaded in one one-horse and one two horse wagon. The drought
making the claim he had pre-empted almost worthless, he came to Fort Scott the next year. One of
the first things he found to do, was the plastering of
Wm. Smith's house. He did any and everything he
could find to do, and succeeded so well that he was
soon able to buy a home. At that time, he wrote to
his brother that he thought, to be a good American
one must own a bit of a home. While living near
where the Frisco station now is a company of soldiers came in after a skirmish, tired and hungry.
The townspeople undertook to satisfy their hunger,
and minister to their comforts. Mrs. Coston baked
biscuits for a squad, and Mrs. D. Bayless says she
remembers hearing her mother say, "Now these
are the last. I have baked up a whole sack of flour
and there is the empty sack."
Five of Mr. Coston's children are now living:
Porter, of Seattle; Dr. Wm. A., of Topeka; Mrs. Do
Bayless, of Springfield, Mo.; Frank, of Aspin, Colo.;
and Frederick, of Coffeyville, Kansas.
Dr. J. H. COUCH.
Dr. Couch, wife and two children, came here in
1857, accompanied by his father-in-law, J. Andrick,
wife and four children. They came in two wagons
and a carriage, from Wisconsin. D. Andrick, a son,
opened the first drug store in town, in a small frame
house, second door north from the northeast corner
of Weir and Williams streets. The doctor and family first lived in the old Post
barracks next the hospital. The first thing Mrs. Couch did, was to burn
the bunks, a leftover from the old barrack days.
She then proceeded to make beds on the floor, for
the family. The doctor homesteaded 160 acres
which covered in part Bridalveil Park, and put up,
at first, a one-room log house near Potters Grove.
For a long time he and Dr. A. G. Osbun were the
only physicians for miles around. Sometimes they
rode as far as Nevada, Mo., to see a patient. During
the Border Troubles, some of the turbulent element
threatened "to get" Dr. Couch, but he went on visiting his patients in both factions, unafraid, as all
these pioneer men were. During this time, any man
who arrayed himself positively on either side, took
his life in his hands.
Two daughters, Mrs. Maida Chapman and Mrs.
V. Harkey, and one son, 0. D. Couch, are still living.
G. A. CRAWFORD.
G. A. Crawford came west from Washington, D.
C. in 1857, and at Lawrence met N. Eddy, D. H.
Weir and E. W. Holbrook. All of these men were
looking for a promising location for a town-site.
Hearing of Fort Scott and the number of new arrivals since its abandonment as a fort, they concluded
to visit the place. Finding it a "likely" place, they
decided to form a Town Company and proceed to
business. Mr. Crawford allied himself with the
Free State party but made many and close friends
among those who were from the south, and who
were, of course, politically in sympathy with the
south. Mr. Crawford's acquaintances were among
the noted men of the country but he was as much
at home in a squatter's cabin as in the center of
Washington society; but his inclinations were for
business and not politics, and the west offered a
good field in that line.
He was, during his residence here, one of the
leaders in keeping the town free as possible from
the rougher elements of both parties, and upholding the hands of the conservative in both. He built
the first flour mill in southern Kansas. Later he
built a woolen mill for the manufacture of cloth,
perhaps the first one west of the Mississippi River.
Also, he built the first foundry and machine shop.
In 1876, President Grant appointed him Commissioner from Kansas to the
Centennial Fair in Philadelphia. Losing his woolen mill and flour mill by
fire, and suffering losses in his other ventures, during the hard times in the 70's, he concluded to go
further west. He founded Grand Junction, Colo.,
and there retrieved his lost fortune. There he died
Jan. 29, 1891. For more about this able man, see
C. W. Goodlander's "Early Days of Fort Scott."
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This website created August 22, 2011 by Sheryl McClure.
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