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lUrly History •! Sol lie Couatv-Salisa, July 19, 1879.Kds.. Joibsal I WAS intereeted in the very dever Article ol A. C. 8. who is, no doubt, as well qualified to write tho early history of Saline county as any one. His loiter suggests a few items I may as well pul in print, and which 1 Will confine to the necessary limits of a newspaper article.The question as to who first settled in Saline county is about as difficult to answer as “who struck Billy Patterson ?” 1 hare no doubt but what theremay have boon unrecorded settlements, ending in disaster and embarrassment. 1 will give thoeejknown or that bad any result. First a party of which Hon. I. B. Plumb, Major Pierce and Hunter, i now receiver at Hays) were members, in 18*15 came in with the emigrants who marched under arms that year and ventured up the Smoky Hill as far aa the Saline. An attempt wae made to atop them at Fl Kiley by some of the pro-slavery Democrats there. They projected a town on the south west bsnk oi the Saline, a short distance from where the government bridge then flood, and called it “ilariposa.” About all they did was to build a good-aiied hewed log house, end dig a well; after which the entire party abandoned the enterprise.At the second session of the Missouri bogus legislature, which assembled at Lecomplon, among many other things good and bad, they chartered a town company called tbo “Buohanan Town Company,”after the illustrious“Jamea, who was then President. The power* of that corporation were truly wonderful. They were to be able to enter for town site and salt manufacturing purposes several thousand acres of land, the United Stales statutes to the con trary notwithstanding, and to make almost everything including a city, salt and railroads. 1 was present during the debate and remember that the Border Ruffian orators dilated on the point that the name ol the town would' carry it over all difficulties. During the summer ol 1*57 a settlement wes made for the placo near where the salt works of Sabra now are. The town site was partially surveyed, and eight hewed log bouses were built by contract, and stood two on a side around a large square, the place being laid off after the model of a southern town. 1 do not think that more than two of the bouses were ever occupied—the chief resident being a brother of Hon. Kichard Mobley, who had resided in Ogden, and who was a member of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention. He bad bis wile and family with him, aud while there his child died, and was buritd under circumstances of great hardship. The town was abandoned in the aame year. No attempt was ever made to ae cure title to any oi it. The prairie fires burned up tbo bouses, and “Buchanan, tho first thing that ever looked like ■ town in what is now Saline county, wont to the moles and the bats like its illustrious uamesake.Having traveled over the greater portion of settled Kansas previously, I planned a tour on fool in tbo spring ol1857, lor the purpose of selecting s town site. 1 engaged the services td an Englishman named Smith, as a companion. lie was a very clever fellow, and boasted of bis great power* as ■ “walkist.” “Hi ham sure you can't keep hup with me, he aaid. 1 thought 1 would try. Equipped with a blanket apiece, ar.us, and stowage lor aeveral days provisions, we took conveyance to the neighborhood of Ft. Kiley, and there swung out on our travels. We went up Smoky Hill river to the Saline ; followed that stream a abort distance, and crossed to the Solomon, which wa partially examined, and then had to make quick time to the Kepublican to gel something to eat. W e then followed down that river and the Kansas to Manhattan. Thence we walked up the Blue to the forks and (ben we drove a lew sUkes near where Blue Rapids now stands, and 1 baptised it Doudsborgb. W’e went up the western branch of the Blue until we met the military road, along which we marched to Marysville. Our longest day’s march was Iro® Marysville to Richmond, whioh was City-one ineasurod miles along the road Our journey lasted about two weeks, and ws averaged rather hotter than forty miles a day. During that journey 1 was divided in opinion between a settlement somewhere near the spot it was made or at the ono on Blue River. I could not see a probable Pacific railroad on tbe latter, and determined to make a location on Smoky Hill river early in1858.lo February of that year %nh Ale*Usrprise tor so new a settlement, but was |necessary ae tbe great floods of 1858 i had washed out all tho government] bridges down the valley. During that spring the Revs. Dr. Wm. Bishop and Rankin organised the first Presbyterian church—the first of any kind in the j place. Horace L.Jone«aad hie lady] kept the first hotel, and introduced tbe second store. A company including Mosers. Simon Barker, and 1 think Oilman, burned the first brick. Israel Berkley, now of Minneapolis, built one or two bouse*. 1 cannot remember all. During that year 1 had a saw and grist mill and lathing mill hauled in wagons from the eastern border of the State and erected—a business about which 1 absolutely knew nothing, but I bad to do it as nobody elae would. It was a very expensive luxury end since then I have ooocluded that i would about as soon own the “undivided half of a comet as a saw mill. During tbe sime year I built the old hotel building wbieb I still stands on the corner ol Sente Fe end Iron Avenues, hauling the pine lumber osed, and the doors and windows,| Irom Kansas City, where pine flooring thon coot 155 per thousand feet.Salina struggled along under great difficulties, receiving accessions of pioneers slowly. The Indians then visited it for trade. Our friend Chae. Tretain started tbe first tin shop, but 1 cannot enumerate all the early settlers in this brief article.Tbe war eame on it like a damper. 1 remember we had a Ull flag pole in the oenlaroflron and Santa Fe Avenues, and whenCol.Lynde and the treacherous officers who surrendered their comrade to tbe rebels in New Mexico, came in with tbe parole prisoners, that A. M. Campbell hoisted tbe flag to remind these fellows that they bad struck the United .Slates. More than half of the able-bodied men of Saline county went into the Union army, and when we returned in the summer ot 1805 the little town looked dilapidated indeed, and with the many enterprising new comment wo had lo go to work to build it up. It has nover made a spasmodic growth, but sitnsted in tbe center ol the best part of Kansas has steadily progressed. During the war it was taksn snd plundered by a band of rebel guerrillas. 1 was in the service thon, but a good account of that affair by an eyewitness would be an interesting chapter of Saline county history.Very Respectfully,W. A. Phillips.tered the Smoky Hill valley, houses at Buchanan bod been built and were then standing, but vacant. A lieiinan, (iothort Schippel, bod erected a cabin on the north-east bank n| the Saline river, near the bridge, and cut a hay stack, on which an old buffalo was ^grazing when we reached the plies. A» L Mr. Stbippcl returned that spring, and ,jhas boon a permanent settler, 1 pro j suae his claim to be the first settler ol j the county is a little better than mine, j And here let me slate that at that time there was no Saline county. Tbe Bor der Ruffian Legislature in 1855, at ’! Shawnee, Missouri, laid off all tbe territory east ol the sixth Principal Meridian into counties, naming them. Thai lino is tho east bouodry ot Saline coun-• ] ty, and runs through Solomon City. Ail west of that was terra mcog*ita. Kan e sas then included a large portion ol j what is now tbe Slate ol Colorado, i There was, and still is an “Arrapahoe', • county somewhere in that region, and i as 1 was occasionally sent as a delegate i to tbe numerous conventions ot that t period,! figured as -‘The gentleman from t1 Arrapahoe.1 took tbe first stock of merchandise ) ^oct larg*- , to Saline county in 1858. .! In February, 1859, I framed and sccar-»' ed tho passage of a bill through the leg \ islature organising five counties weet ol ' the sixth Principal Meridian, and in it named Saline county, with her present f 1 boundaries. Tbe other counties wen McPherson, Ottawa, Cloud aod Kepub-' lie—although I think most ot them bad different names then. Soli be county' j was organited wben 1 returned that -spring, (.’has. Holliman being on# ol »• the Commissioners, and I think “A. C.3.” was county dark. H. L. Jonas, -, J Ksq , was the first member of the leg is i, .slurs. That pear w* strreyej and J built the road nee*h of tba river from Galina to Wyandotte. It was a gnat ea
Newspaper Details
Saline County Journal
Salina, Kansas, US
Thu, Jul 31, 1879
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Salina P.
KS, USA 05 Dec 2024
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