Osage County History
Early History 1860-1870
Excerpts from "The History of Osage County," by Hon. James Rogers, 1879
In 1860, the Old School Presbyterian church was organized, with J. M.
Chambers and William Jamison as elders. A small church was erected
which has since been sold and converted into the dwelling house of
Harvey McCaslin. F. P. Monford was the first settled preacher, succeeded
by Rev. J. M. Price, who has since been succeeded by Messrs. Crozier,
Maxwell, Rankin, and the present (1879) pastor, V. M. King.
On the 14th of May, 1861, the following volunteers enlisted in the 2d Kansas
Infantry: Robert H. Baird, Samuel Houston, James R. Stewart, Orlando P.
Rooks, Reuben H. Playford, William C. Chatfield, Norman Curtis, J. R. Drew, Wm.
Y. Drew, Thos. W. Rogers, H. A. Dutton, Silas M. Hills, John Hendry, Howard
Schuyler, Chas. W. Ryus, Fred. Schuyler, N. T. B. Schuyler, Julius D. Wright,
John Rambo, A. W. Boyce, A. W. Bailey, Robert A. Bratton, Chas. H.
Gooder, F. G. Hunter, Abraham Leonard, Fernando Olds, S. T. Shunk. This
regiment enlisted for three years, with the understanding that it should be discharged
at the end of three months. After enjoying the luxury of the battle of Wilson's
Creek, and a campaign across Missouri and back again, it was discharged Oct. 3tst
of the same year.
In the summer of 1866 Abel Polley, an old settler, and for several years Justice of the Peace,
was murdered at his house by a fellow named Bates, whom he was guarding for his son, John
Polley, the Sheriff of the county. Bates was afterward hung in the court-house on the 20th
of February, 1867, and was the first and last lawful execution in the county.
In 1869, a company of Welsh, headed by J. Mather Jones, of Utica, N.Y.,
laid out the town of Arvonia, south of the Marais des Cygnes, who was soon
after joined by J. A. Whittaker, of Chicago, John Rees, Lewis Humphrey, John
Nai Jones, Evan Evans, David Lloyd Davis and other enterprising parties. A
neat and thriving little town was started. The railroad failed to pass through it,
and it still remains a small town instead of a large city, as it deserves to be. J.
Mather Jones is dead, and Mr. Whittaker has returned to Chicago. Rev. M.
Burrows was the first settled pastor, since which time they have enjoyed the
preaching of Rev. Mr. Thomas. A fine school-house has been erected and a few
stores. They have drawn around them a good society, and seem to be a happy
and contented people.
The town of Olivet was started in 1869 by a company of Swedenborgians,
among whom were A. J. Bartels, Dr. W. C. Sweezy, Dr. J. Parker Ball, and T.
B. and William Haslam. A mill was erected, also a church, school-house, a good
store, hotel and several dwelling houses; but the town soon seemed to be
doomed to destruction. The mill was burned; the Haslams failed in business;
a prairie fire swept over the town,and burned up a large number of the dwellings.
The city was unable to pay its bonds which had been issued for city
improvements. The inhabitants abandoned the place. The city was sold for taxes, and
the purchasers of the tax certificates, when they came to pay the taxes for the
succeeding years, found a bigger elephant on their hands than they bargained for,
and in all but a name the city of Olivet has long since been snuffed out.
In the spring of 1870 the Santa Fe railroad was completed through Osage
county. This year John M. Wetherell, a gentleman from the city of "Brotherly
love," purchased about 8,000 acres of land lying between Dragoon and Salt
creeks, of Seyfert, McManus & Co., of which he conveyed the greater
portion to S. J. Peter, the then general manager of the A. T. & S. F.
R. R., and now president of the Carlton Coal and Mining Company. On
this tract Osage City was laid out, also Wetherell's, Dodds' & Boyd's; Dodds�
& Martin's, and Dodds� addition to Osage City. On the 7th of March, 1870. the
town of Lyndon was commenced to be surveyed, and by October of the same year
one hundred and twenty buildings, including two hotels and twenty stores, had
been erected; it then had a population of about 500; and at an election for the
location of the county sent, held on the 18th of the same month, more than 300
votes were cast. Hon. L. D. Bailey, previously an associate justice of the
Supreme Court, was the prime mover of the enterprise, and may properly be
called the father of the town. At this election Lyndon was elect by 250
majority. Burlingame contested the election, and Lyndon, being defeated in the
District Court, it appealed to the Supreme Court, which court ordered a new
trial, which was never had, as Burlingame in the meantime had got a new
election ordered, and with the help of Osage City the county seat was voted back to
Burlingame. The location of Lyndon was an unfortunate one. The men who
located the town were possessed of sufficient means, and had sufficient energy
in any favorable location to have laid the foundation tor a large city. Among
the principal men who first located there are John S. Edie, ex-sheriff and now
county treasurer; E. A. Barrett, the present post-master;
E. D. Atwell, ex-postmaster and druggist;
S. C. Guilliland, an enterprising business young man; C.
S. Sprague, W. H. and Bennin Jenniss, Dr. Calhoun, T. L. Varner, H. J. Bailey
and E. Alcott.
In 1871, while Lyndon had the appearance of being quite a city, Osage City
looked like the beginning of a small town. As Bailey was the father of Lyndon,
and Schuyler of Burlingame, so John F. Dodds may be said to be the father of
Osage City. He selected the site and surveyed it, induced Peter and Wetherell
to lay out the town, invested all he had and could borrow, and induced all his
friends that he could to invest all they had and all they could borrow in the
building up of the city. The Carbon Coal and Mining Company leased largely
of the coal land underneath the city and its vicinity; other companies were
organized, and commenced to sink shafts and operate for coal. Another railroad
seemed to be in prospect opening outward towards the east, many private
individuals commenced shipping coal. Stores were erected and filled with goods,
numerous kinds of mechanical enterprises were started up, and everything seemed
to foretell a fortune to the founders of the town, when lo! the panic of 1873 fell
upon Osage City, as it did upon many other thriving places, and the founder of
the new city awoke one morning to realize that his golden visions had completely
vanished, that he was utterly ruined and bankrupt. He immediately dropped
everything, struck out for the mining regions of
Colorado, and has never looked towards Kansas since. John L. Dodds was one of
the most energetic, observing and far-seeing men that ever settled in Kansas.
He had faults which were few and small, and virtues which were large and
many. He was a man exactly calculated to help other people to make money,
but to save little himself. Osage City owes him a monument, such as I fear they
will never erect to his memory. Among the early settlers at Osage City were
A. R. Bothell, C. M. Ryus, S. C. Herriott, James A. Drake, F. M. Davis, Sam'l
Slussar, Robert L. Morris, Samuel Marshall, A. S. Sprague, Miller Bros.,
Mathews & Hatfield, and Charles S. Martin.
During the war, detachments of several tribes of Indians from the Indian
territory located near Quenemo. This brought a good deal of business to this point,
and a driving trade was kept up there. Among those then engaged in the
mercantile business were Perry Fuller, Alexander and John C. Rankin, and William
Whistler. After the war closed, the trading was confined principally with the
Sac and Fox Indians. In 1870, the town of Quenemo was laid out and
considerable of an effort made to build up the town and procure the building of a
railroad up the Marais des Cygnes. Warner Craig, Dr. Alfred Wiley, John C.
Rankin, William Whistler and several others put forth their best endeavors in
this direction. The territory being thrown open to settlement, everything looked
fair for their building, as there ought to be a large commercial town at this
point. The company failed to secure the building of the road; a good many of
the settles immediately surrounding the place, thought more of stealing timber
off other people's land than of improving their own. Whistler died, one of the
Rankins moved away, Craig failed, and business gradually declined, until 1878,
when a fire swept away all the principal houses of the place, leaving behind
little more than a recollection of what had been.
The city of Melvern was settled in 1870. Among the first settlers were Wm.
and Charles Cochran, L. F. Warner. T. O. Boggs, Asher Smith and Thomas
Baxter. Melvern, like Quenemo, is surrounded by an excellent farming Country,
and the citizens are enterprising and industrious. There seems to be lacking
but one thing to make it a first class inland town, namely, a railroad. It seems
to me to be successfully demonstrated that no town can flourish unless the
surrounding country is prosperous; and no farming community can prosper where
produce is cheap and no means of transporting it to market is provided, except
the slow process of hauling with horse-teams. What Melvern, Quenemo, Olivet,
Lyndon and Arvonia seem to need most of all is a railroad.
The youngest town born in the county is Scranton. It was laid out in the year
1873 by O. H. Sheldon and Alexander Thomas. Coal mining was started there
on a small scale by Sheldon and Thomas, who were succeeded by the
Burlingame and Scranton Coal Company. A school-house was erected; a store soon
after opened by finch Bros. A good deal of coal shipping was done by private
rties. The showing made by thue parties attracted the attention of the Carbon
Coal and Mining Company, and they afterwards procured leases of coal-land,
so far as they were able, and now they are doing a large share of the coal
business. In 1875, Joseph Drake opened up a coal shaft on the property of H. P.
Throop, and soon after his brothers, experienced coal miners, came out from
Pennsylvania and joined in business with him.
Return to
Osage Co. KHHP
|
This website created Dec. 5, 2011 by Sheryl McClure.
� 2011 Kansas History and Heritage Project
|