The Book, The Contents, What It's About, Notes, The Foreword, Reviews
What is this book all about?
It is about the Indian tribes living in the Indian Territory (which later became the state of Oklahoma) with whom the citizens of Cowley County established contact via trade shortly after the formation of Cowley County. At first trade was limited to buying furs from the Osage Indians. This trade broadened in 1876 due to the county flour mills gaining government contracts for flour to be transported to Indian agencies.
Did we trade with all the Indians in the Territory?
No. We traded with the Indian tribes immediately south and southwest of us.
Are other Indian tribes covered in this book?
Yes. The Cherokee and Sioux Indians, as discussed in the first chapter.
How much history of the relevant Indian tribes was covered.
We have attempted to develop the time when each tribe we traded with first went to the Indian Territory. We have also tried to give a brief background on different tribes; and in some cases, we were able to find out what their present status is.
Does this book cover warfare between Indians and whites?
Yes. We obtained data from early newspapers, starting with 1868, at which time the first settlers came to the future Cowley County before the Osage Indians had departed. Engagements with the militia, military, and citizens by Indians on the warpath are covered starting with 1868 in the Cheyenne and Arapaho chapter; also some of the same events are chronicled in the Kiowa and Comanche chapter. Other sources than newspapers were used to present a more complete picture of Indian depredations and the reason they were prone to fight.
How did we manage to settle matters with those Indians prone to fight?
The military finally convinced the Indians it was useless to fight. Government agencies were established to look after their needs: food, clothing, schooling, etc.
How did the citizens of Cowley County react to our neighbors in the Indian Territory?
At first with extreme wariness. As explained in the first chapter, this soon changed.
Are there any stories about Indians?
From newspaper articles, stories are related concerning contact by people from Cowley County with the Indians: individually and collectively.
The establishment of the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania is covered as well as the beginning of the Indian industrial school in Indian Territory, which became known as "Chilocco Indian School."
From Indian Territory to the State of Oklahoma.
There are references to changes proposed by Congress due to the need for more land for settlers and an outlet from Kansas to Texas for railroads The transition that took place changing "Indian Territory" into the state known as "Oklahoma" is not noted in this volume other than a few brief references to events occurring in Oklahoma.
Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians.
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians shared the same reservation, sometimes called "Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation"; at other times "Arapaho and Cheyenne reservation."
The agency established on this reservation was referred to in three different ways: Cheyenne Agency; Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency; Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Agency. Some Northern Cheyenne Indians shared the reservation in Indian Territory.
A temporary reservation was established in 1869 for the Kiowa-Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa Indians near Camp Supply. A permanent reservation was established by U. S. Indian Agent, Brinton Darlington, in 1870, on the north side of the Canadian River, about two miles northwest of present El Reno, Canadian County, Oklahoma. The reservation, located near Fort Sill, became known by three different names: Kiowa-Apache-Comanche Reservation; Kiowa-Comanche Reservation; Comanche and Kiowa Reservation.
The Kiowa-Apache Indians were often referred to as "Apache Indians." C. M. Scott called them "Apatches."It appears that they were a separate band from the Apache Indians.
C. M. Scott.
Much of this book contains items from C. M. Scott, one of our earliest frontier men.
This material came from his granddaughter, his diaries, and many articles written by him during the time that he was editor of the Arkansas City Traveler. Further articles submitted by him and written by others concerning him after he left the newspaper also appear. Scott made many friends among the Indians and was able to communicate with them either in their own language or in sign language.
Scott was one of the early-day newspaper editors who assisted greatly in bringing mutual understanding, communication, and cohesion with different tribes in the Indian Territory.
There were opposing factions: not all editors felt the same way. Daniel Azro Millington, editor of the Winfield Courier, had no use for most Indians and was noted for printing salacious jokes as news. [The story of the Indian who ate a nitro-glycerine cartridge, page 139, and the reference to White Eagle being fat, page 193, are examples. We are told that White Eagle was never fat and like so many other Indians, often faced starvation.]
Cowley County History.
Thanks to Dr. William (Bill) Bottorff, Austin, Texas, who formerly lived in Winfield, the work has continued on the history of Cowley County. Without his help this book might never have been completed.
By depicting events which molded this county, we hope to assist researchers.
We welcome interesting stories about Cowley County settlers. If you have one about your early ancestors, we will print it under your name, reserving the right to edit.
Let us hear your comments about Volume II.
Mary Ann Wortman
Member, ARKANSAS CITY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
1400 North Third Street, Arkansas City, KS 67005
from Bill Bottorff <bbott@ausbcomp.com>
Austin Business Computers, Inc.
Thursday, December 16, 1999, 21:58:35-0600
In Volume Two of Cowley County, Kansas, history, the county becomes a lens through which the panorama of the old west becomes finely focused on the lives of individuals doing their best to survive and prosper under conditions we have difficulty imagining.
In 1868 E. C. Manning rode down through the prairie and with a partner opened a trading post at an intersection of two busy Indian trails. His trading post became known as the "Old Log Store" and Manning had to pay $6.00 for the lease to the land he occupied from the Osage. The going rate was usually $5.00, so Manning paid $1.00 more than most. Today the State Bank of Winfield is conducting business at the location of the "Old Log Store."
In that same year (1868) young Bill Cody, then 22, watched the comings
and goings into the Indian Territory from a bluff above the Walnut River.
He had time to carve his initials in a rock nearby that would in time become
the private property of an individual near Arkansas City.
A twenty-one year old, C. M. Scott, hauls a printing press from Emporia
to Arkansas City and starts printing a newspaper in 1870, called the Arkansas
City Traveler. Three years later the Congress of the United States fails
to appropriate funds to feed the Indians on the reservations south and southwest
of Cowley County in the Indian Territory, forcing them to go hunting for
food.
T. M. Concannon and others open photography studies to take and market Indian
photographs.
A nineteen-year old, Edgar Deming, has his picture taken in front of E.
P. Kinne's grocery store, located at 116 North Summit Street, in Arkansas
City, along with other United States surveyors in 1873. In a few days he
heads into the Indian Territory with a surveying team consisting of himself
and three others. He and his team are found murdered. It turns out that
a band of Cheyenne Indians were responsible.
We find the history we read about during this era is made up of many individuals, each doing what they can, one difficult day at a time. Scott writes about them. Concannon takes photos of them. But the real history is more complicated. We find that young Scott became a secret agent for Governor St. John of Kansas, who needs to know what is really going on in the Territory. The educated Indian who acted as interpreter between Manning and Osage Chief Chetopah to lease Osage land was Bill Conner, who became a life-long friend of C. M. Scott.
Black Hills fever hits individuals in Cowley County. We read that the
700 miles to Deadwood Gulch can be made in a light wagon in 16 days. In
1876 word slowly comes about the massacre of George Armstrong Custer's command,
while activities concerning "gold fever" are relayed to County
County newspapers from the Dead Wood (Black Hills) Reporter. We learn from
the Cowley County newspapers that some of the Southern Cheyenne left their
reservation in Indian Territory to participate in the "Custer Massacre"
and then returned to report the battle from their perspective to their Indian
agent. It will be many years before anyone will believe their account.
The threads of personal and family histories are finely woven into a tapestry
in both Volumes I and II that display the history of Cowley County with
which we are familiar. But the fine detail is what is exciting to read.
It is amazing to live through these events of history and to realize that
many activities happened adjacent to Cowley County a long time ago.
About a year ago while browsing at the Southwestern College web site in Winfield, I ran across a comment by one of the students (on his personal web page) in which he lamented being in the middle of nowhere, in a spot where nothing was "happening" or had ever "happened," as far as he knew. This comment bothered me, happening as it did at a college where the athletic teams are referred to as "Moundbuilders," and one can’t walk along Timber Creek near the Southwestern campus without stumbling across arrowheads.
I grew up in southern Kansas and knew a little about the history of the area. A large percentage of what is considered the "wild west" in the movies and western novels happened within 200 miles of Cowley County. Of course, there are no ghost towns because the land is too productive to leave many of the old structures standing. The land is put to its highest and best use: agriculture. Prosperity replaced those early hard times and everyone who was there would just as soon forget the tough early days. They just didn’t talk about it any more.
The transition period from Indian country to white settlement took place rapidly. From our perspective (almost 130 years later) it looks like the Indians moved out on one Friday night and the White settlers moved in on Saturday morning. Towns and villages developed quickly in Cowley County. The original log structures were rapidly replaced with fine brick and limestone houses, business, and public buildings during the 1870s. The work was done well! Many of these buildings are still in use.
When you look at Winfield, Arkansas City, Udall, Burden, and other towns of Cowley County, you sense a state of permanency—almost a sense of having been there from the beginning. In fact, the population in the 1880s was nearly what it is today; but it was rural, a family living on nearly every quarter section of good land. In 1882 there were nearly 7,000 students in school, and something like 125 schools. Population increased at breakneck speed from 1871 to the mid 1880s. Something exciting was happening!
Microfilm files of the Winfield Courier had given me a taste of that excitement. But living in Austin, Texas, and running a computer company doesn’t leave me much time to investigate. Only a few historians with a good deal of time on their hands have had access to all of these papers or the microfilm copies. Digging through years of papers to follow a story line has required dedication and time, which most of us do not have. It was frustrating to know that so much exciting history lay hidden from view of people who walked along old Indian trails (like Main Street in Winfield) every day without knowing its history. How many folks, reverently circling Island Park along the "Trail of Lights" at Christmas time under-stand how holy a place this was to the Indians?
Richard Kay and Mary Ann Wortman spent over seven years entering entire volumes of papers into their computers. When I attempted to contact Kay in March 1997 to get a copy of Volume I, his son, Kevin, explained that Kay was in the last stage of terminal cancer and was not feeling well enough to talk. Kevin sent me a book and Kay’s wife, Mary Ann, con-tacted me. When I found out the wealth of material that she and Kay had accumulated in digital form, I knew that it needed to be shared with everyone interested in the history of this region. Never did I suspect how sharp a picture of the world and county in the 1870s would be presented in the Cowley County newspapers of that time. The complete contents of the newspaper files are contained in digital form on a compact disk, "COWLEY COUNTY HISTORY RESOURCES." These papers tell the history in a special way. Each reader will find their own thread to follow, weaving in and out through the people and places and events of that era.
Kay’s plan, and last request to Mary Ann, was to do "The Indians" next. I didn’t visit with him about his reasons; but they have become clear as the book progressed. The eco-nomic base of Cowley County was greatly expanded once trade began with the Indians. A wagon load of wheat, hauled to Wichita, was worth a lot less than a wagon load of flour delivered into Indian Territory. And the U. S. Government provided cash to pay for the flour.
Some citizens learned to speak with the Osage, Ponca, Kaw, or whatever Indian their business required contact with. Some formed deep, thoughtful bonds with their Indian friends and customers. Other citizens covered their eyes and ignored the source of their wealth. Even today in Winfield and Arkansas City, I have heard people say, "The Indians never really had anything to do with Cowley County."
Kay saw the news stories of the relationships between the Indians and the settlers and knew that this was the main story line. He had also collected enough local legends and family histories to know that there was more than what was in the papers. The relationships were complex and deep. From the time that E. C. Manning signed the lease agreement with Osage Chief Chetopah for the location of his log store (Bill Conner witnessing Chetopah’s "X") and collected the six dollars from Col. Manning, the settlers and Indians each pursued their own interests through commerce with the other. Sometimes there was conflict and sometimes there was cooperation. Bill Conner and C. M. Scott became good friends. E. C. Manning and C. M. Scott became political enemies.
In this book we look at the settlement of the Indians in Indian Territory—not just the Osages, the previous residents of Cowley County—but all of the Indians who became trading partners in the mid 1870s that fueled the incredible growth of Cowley County. We also look at military engagements with some of these Indian tribes by the U. S. Army and Kansas militia groups as well as activities of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Congressional committees, Congress, and Kansas officials.
Dr. Wm. W. Bottorff
P. O. Box 161522
Austin, TX 78716
December 18, 1999
Dear Mary Ann:
What a pleasant surprise to find in our mail box: The Indians. Delia
and I were very pleased to receive it. We thank you for your thoughtfulness
in sending it to us.
I have started to look it over. I congratulate you and your associates on
a job well done-a really first rate piece of work of which you can be very
proud. All those interested in the Indians of Cowley County, now and in
future years, are in your debt. This subject is now open to study, without
long hours of tedious research. In your two volumes, you and your late husband
have done your duty to those hardy settlers and Native Americans who settled,
lived in, and made Cowley County.
I am spreading the word about its appearance. I know that the Southwestern
College Library will be acquiring a copy of it, plus volume I, which for
some reason they never secured. I am also contacting friends in the National
Archives who may have an interest.
Again, we appreciate you thinking of us. We send you our very best wishes
for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Sincerely yours,
[Signed] Jerry L. Wallace
The Arkansas City Traveler, Tuesday, December 7, 1999
Letters to the Editor
History of Cowley County fascinating reading
To the editor:
As a resident of Arkansas City since 1929 I have found that I really do
not know as much about my home town as I thought I did.
Recently I was given a book entitled History of Cowley County, Kansas, Volume
two, with the main heading "The Indians." Not only is it most
interesting, but one has to appreciate all the research that went into it.
Arkansas City folks can learn much from it, and many will remember some
of the pioneers that are often mentioned. It was compiled by the late Richard
Kay Wortman, his wife Mary Ann, and William W. Bottorff of Texas.
Instead of staring at the TV all this winter, I can heartily recommend this
book. In the past I have thought of myself as being well versed on our community
and its past history. Now I can only say I am most ignorant of what efforts
and work went into creating our small but proud community.
If you wish to enlighten yourself of the background, and the many experiences
of the pioneers and Indians of various tribes, do get a copy. There are
several places in the community that now offer it for sale. Whatever it
may cost you in coin, you will have hours of pure enjoyment as well as being
the smart one in your coffee group that can relate some of the many stories
you will recall from the reading of it.
A community will either expand or disappear from what history it leaves
behind. You will not only be Ark City smart, but the Indian stories alone
will be a treat for the children and grandchildren.
Perhaps Oprah should have a copy as when she "plugs" a book it
is then the topic of discussion for a long time.
Respectfully:
F. F. "Pat" Harder, Arkansas City
Volumn I - History of Cowley County, The Beginning