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lUrlj History of Maliae CeuatrSalina, July 19, 1879.Edr.. JoCRXALI wm 1 nlerooted in Iho very dever article ol A. C. S. , who ie, no doubt, as well qualified lo write tbo early history of Saline county as any one. His loiter suggests a few items 1 may as well |ut 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 shoot as difficult to answer as “who struck Billy Patterson r 1 hare no doubt but what there may hare boon unrecorded settlements, ending in disaster and embarrassment.1 will giro thosejknown or that had any result. First a party of which Hon. I. B. Plumb, Major Pierce and Hunter,, now receiver at Hays) were members, in 1865 came in with the emigrants who marched under arms that year and vent ured op the Smoky Hill as far as the i Saline. An attempt wae made to atop ; them at Ft. Kiley by some of the pro-slavery Democrats ibare. They projected a town on the south west bank o! the Saline, a abort distance from where tbe government bridge then Flood, and called it “Mariposa.” About all they did was to build a good-sixod 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 Lecomptou, among many other things good and bad, they chartered a town company called tbe “Buohnnnn Town Company,”after the illustrious”James,” who wbb then President. The powers 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 contrary notwithstanding, and to make almost everything including a city, tall and railroads. 1 was present daring 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 tbe summer ol 1*07 a settlement was made for ibo piaco near where tbe salt works of Sabra now aro. 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 ofT after the model of a southern town. I do not think that more than two of the bouses were ever occupied—the chief resident being a brother of Uoo. Kichard Mobley, who had resided in Ogden, and who was a member of th# Locompton Constitutional Convention. He bad bis witoand 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 so cure title to any of it. The prairie fires burned up tbo bouses, and “Buchanan,” the first thing that ever looked like a town in what is now Saline county, wont lo tbe molee and the bats like ita illustrious namesake.I Having travelod over the greater portion of settled Kansas previously, I planned a tour on foot in tbo spring ol 1857, lor the purpose of selecting a town aite. 1 engaged tbe services cM an Englishman named Smith, as a companion. lie was a very dever fellow, and boasted of bis great powers as a ■ j walkist.” Hi ham sure you can’t. keep bup with me,” he aaid. 1 thought 1 would try. Equipped with a blanket . apiece, ar.us, and etowage tor several days proviaions, we took conveyance to the neighborhood of Ft. Riley, and there swung out on our travels. We went up Smoky Hill river to the Saline ; followed that alream a short distance, and crossed to the Solomon, which wa par-. tislly examined, and then bad to make quick time to the Republican to get something to eat. We then followed down that river and tbe Kansas to Man-‘ bsttan. Thence we walked up the Blue J to the forks and then we drove a few stakes near where Blue Rapids now r stands, and 1 baptised it Doudsburgh.» We went up the western branch of the Blue until we met the military road,1 along which we marched to Marysville.- Our longest day’s march aM Irojn I Marysville to Kichmoad, which wasCity-one ineaaurod miles along the road . Our journey lasted about two weeks,, and we averaged rather hotter than , forty miles a day. During that journey , 1 waa divided in opinion between a eet-j clement somewhere near the spot it was , made or at the one 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 in , 1858.r la February of that year with A lag.M. Campbell and James Muir, I again I entered the Smoky Hill valley. The houses at Buchanan bad been built and , were then '•lauding, but vacant. A , tieiman, (iothart Schippel, bad 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 waa 1 grazing when we reached the place. As L Mr. Schippel returned that spring, and , has been a permanent saltier, I pre-, suae his claim to be the first settler of .1 the county is a little bettor than mine.I And here lot mo slate that at that time there was 00 Saline county. Tbe Bor-1 der Ruffian Legislature in 1*55, at 'Shawnee, Missouri, laid off all the territory east of the sixth Principal Meridian into counties, naming them. That lino is the east bouodry of Saline conn-- j ty, and runs through Solomon City. Allwest of that was terra incojmita. Kan-t «as then included a large portioo of ; what is now tbe State ol Colorado.I There was, and still it an “Arrapahoe”. 1 county somewhere in that region, andI as 1 was occasionally sent as a delegateII to the numerous conventions of that* period,! figured as ‘The gentleman from t Arrapahoe.”1 took tbe first stock of merchandise .• ml large , to Saline county in 1858.. j In February, ls.‘»9, ( framed and secur , ed the passage of a bill through tbe leg (islature organising fire counbee weal of the sixth Principal Meridian, and in it named Saline county, with her present f 1 boundaries. Tbe other coaabea were McPherson, Ottawa, Cload and Kepub-* lie—although I thins most of them bad different names then. Salbe county? | wae organized when 1 returned that spring, Chas. Holtxman being one ol » j the Commissioners, and I tbiak “A. C.!3. was canty dark. H. I.. Joans,■,} Ksq . was the first member of the legit » , Inure. That year us surrey ej no j J built the rlt;i«d ne««b of the river from 1 Saline to Wyandotte. It was a grant sa-terpriseforaoDewasottelement,batwas 1necessary ae tbe great floods of 1859 I had washed out all the government 1 bridges down the valley. During that 1 spring the Rovt. Dr. Wm. Bishop and lt;Rankin organised the first Presbyterian 1 church—the first of aoy kind in the ' place. Horace L. Jones and bis lady 1 kept the first hotel, and introduced tbe 1 second store. A company including 1 Mosers. Simon Barker, and 1 think Oil- 1 man, burned tbe first brick. Israel 1 Msrkley, now of Minneapolis, built one 1 or two oouees. 1 cannot remember all. 1 During that year 1 bad a saw and grist mill and lathing mill hauled in wagons from ths eastern border of the State 1 and erected—a business about which 1 j absolutely knew nothing, but I had fi do it as nobody else would. It waa a very sxpensiva luxury and since then 11 bave ooocluded that 1 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 which still stands on the corner of Santa Fe and Iron Avsnaee, hauling the pine lum- ' ber used, and the doors and windows, irom Kansas City, where pine flooring ! tbon cott S55 per thousand feet.Salina struggled along under great difficulties, receiving accessions of pioneers slowly. The Indians then visited ' it for trade. Oar friend Chae. Tretain ' started tbe first tin shop, but 1 cannot 1 snumerats all the early settlers in this brief article.Ths war earns on it like a damper. 1 1 remember we bed e ull flag pole in the 1 center of Iron and Santa Fe Avenues, and whenCol.Lyndeand 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 I, United States. More than half of the , able-bodied men of Saline county went into the Umoo army, and when we returned in tbo summer of 1865 the little town looked dilapidated indeed, and with the many enterprising new com mere wo had lo go to work to build it ' up. It has never made a spasmodic growth, but situated in the center ol the beat part of Kansas has steadily progressed. During tbe war it was taken and plundered by a band of rebel guerrillas. 1 was in the service thou, but a good account of that affair by an eyewitness woaid be an interesting chapter of Saline county history.Very Respectfully,W. A. Phillips.
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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