JAMES CHRISTIAN.
FACTS KNOWN:
JAMES CHRISTIAN BORN SEPTEMBER 29, 1819, ISLA LECALE, DOWN COUNTY, IRELAND. SON OF ROBERT AND MARY CHRISTIAN.
1834, AT AGE 15, CAME TO UNITED STATES. LOCATED IN PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA. BECAME SADDLER.
1842, AGE 23, BEGAN STUDY OF LAW IN KENTUCKY. HE PURSUED THESE STUDIES UNTIL HIS MEANS BECAME EXHAUSTED AND THEN ALTERNATED WORK AT HIS TRADE WITH STUDY UNTIL 1851, WHEN HE WAS ADMITTED TO THE BAR.
1846, AGE 27, MARRIED TO MALINDA G. ROSS, DAUGHTER OF PHILIP AND REBECCA ROSS.
1851, AGE 32, BECAME LAWYER, COMMENCED PRACTICE IN MISSOURI.
1854, AGE 35, CAME TO KANSAS AND LOCATED AT LAWRENCE.
1855, AGE 36, ELECTED FIRST CLERK AND RECORDER OF DOUGLAS COUNTY AND WAS CLERK OF THE PROBATE COURT.
DECEMBER 5, 1855, AGE 36, ADMITTED TO PRACTICE, SUPREME COURT OF KANSAS. THIS IS THE DATE THAT THE KANSAS SUPREME COURT WAS ORGANIZED.
He defended Josiah Miller, editor of a Lawrence Free State paper, arrested and tried on the 15th of May, 1856, for treason, and cleared him.
MAY 21, 1856, AGE 37, PRESENT AT THE BURNING OF THE FREE STATE HOTEL. TOOK AN ACTIVE PART IN THE SAVING OF LIVES AND PROPERTY. SAVED THE LIFE OF SENATOR POMEROY, WHEN THE MOB HAD GATHERED WITH ROPES TO HANG POMEROY BY GETTING HIM INTO CHRISTIAN'S OFFICE AND HIDING HIM. ALSO, SAVED JUDGE MILLER OF LAWRENCE.
WINTER 1856-1857, AGE 37/38, MEMBER OF THE FIRST TERRITORIAL COUN-CIL AT LECOMPTON.
FROM 1857, AGE 38, UNTIL JIM LANE DIED IN 1866, JAMES CHRISTIAN WAS A PARTNER OF SENATOR JIM LANE.
He was a member of the Democratic Territorial convention at Leavenworth November 25th, 1858.
March 1, 1859, eldest daughter George A., born at Lawrence.
He was a member of the Atchison Democratic Convention, March 27, 1860.
1862, AGE 43, JAMES CHRISTIAN WAS APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN AS COMMISSARY OF SUBSISTENCE IN THE ARMY, WITH THE RANK OF CAP-TAIN. HE HELD THIS POSITION UNTIL 1864, AGE 45, WHEN HE WAS MUSTERED OUT.
1865, AGE 46, JAMES CHRISTIAN WAS APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT JOHNSON AS U. S. ATTORNEY FOR DAKOTA TERRITORY.
1875, AGE 56, JAMES CHRISTIAN CAME TO ARKANSAS CITY.
1879, AGE 60, JAMES CHRISTIAN HAD HIS EYE SIGHT BEGIN TO FAIL HIM FROM WAR INJURIES.
2/3/1886 dau Molly Christian married Phillip R. Snyder.
3/16/1886 dau Linda Christian married Will Daniels.
1882, AGE 63, JAMES CHRISTIAN BECAME TOTALLY BLIND.
1/21/1882 eldest daughter George A., wife of A. W. Berkey, died.
Winfield Courier, January 26, 1882.
[MORE PERSONALS.] DIED. Mrs. A. W. Berkey died very suddenly at her residence in Arkansas City last Saturday. She had been sinking for some time with consumption, but it was not suspected that she was so near death=s door until Saturday morning. Her husband was in Kansas City and was wired in time to catch the K. C. L. & S. train and came in Saturday evening, but too late to see her alive. We deeply sympathize with him in this affliction. Mrs. Berkey was a daughter of Judge James Christian, and was born at Lawrence in 1859. She was the first child baptized in the Episcopal Church in the State. The loss of this, his eldest daughter, is a sad blow to the Judge. She has been the mainstay of his declining years, and since the failure of his eyesight, she has been almost the only light along the pathway of his life.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 15, 1882.
Cowley County has the two oldest living members of the Supreme Court of Kansas. Judge James Christian, of Arkansas City, is the oldest member; J. Marion Alexander, of Winfield, is the second. They were both admitted at Lecompton the same day in December, 1855, the first day the court was organized. Samuel D. Le Compt was Chief Justice, Rush, Elmore, Saunders, and W. Johnson, associate Justices; Noel Eccleson, Clerk; and Andrew J. Isaacs, United States Attorney. On the same day was admitted R. R. Reed, Marcus J. Parrott, Edmund Brierley. But three of the above named gentlemen are living: Judge Christian, Jude Le Compt, and Col. Alexander.
1895: APRIL 14, 1895, AGE 76, JAMES CHRISTIAN DIED.
SOURCE: Civil War on the Western Border 1854-1865
By Jay Monaghan
Boston - Little Brown and Company - Toronto
Copyright 1955, by James Monaghan
Reprinted July 1955
BOOK CAME FROM WINFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Page 21: The Emigrant Aid Company [New England] began work on a fine concrete hostelry called the Free-State Hotel or Eldridge House, for the lessee, Shalor Eldridge. The roof of the building was constructed with portholes at the top of the walls.
Pages 56-57: May 21, 1856.
The proslavery "army" had been ostensibly a posse under the direction of United States Marshal Donaldson and Sheriff Samuel Jones. Governor Shannon was conspicuously absent. As a representative of President Pierce on the eve of a contention in which he hoped to be renominated, Shannon wished to make no false step. The "army" encamped, as they had in December 1855, along the Wakarusa, four miles from town.
The Eldridge brothers, businessmen as well as politicians, feared the destruction of their expensive furnishings in the Emigrant Aid Company's hotel. They drove over to the enemy lines to tell the commanders that they would personally aid in serving any legal warrants which the officers might have, if their property were spared.
Colonel Harry Titus, a new man who had been discussed in the Lawrence papers as a Florida pirate, announced emphatically that the newspaper presses in town would have to be destroyed to satisfy the boys from South Carolina.
The Eldridges returned to town, fearing trouble. On Massachusetts Street, the crisis was discussed, and the frightened citizens, with no leader to advise them, decided to continue the old policy of nonresistance preached by their imprisoned "Governor" Robinson.
Early on the morning of May 21, 1856, the citizens of Lawrence saw horsemen in military array on Mount Oread. The rising sun shone on the grim barrels of cannon pointed toward the city. Red banners flapped in the wind against the green slope. Far to the south, companies could be seen marching along the California road, wheeling to the right, coming to reinforce the "soldiers" on the hill. Soon a few scouts walked into town, looked around for possible resistance. Reassured by the citizens, they walked out again. Then United States Deputy Marshal W. F. Fain rode down the street with a posse in shirt sleeves. He deputized six Lawrence citizens, among them the Eldridge brothers, to help make arrests.
G. W. Smith, G. W. Deitzler, and others were apprehended for treason, and the citizens made no protest. The Eldridges then invited the United States officers to dinner in the Free-State Hotel, and everything seemed to be progressing peaceably.
At three o'clock in the afternoon Sheriff Jones clattered into town. He arrested Jacob Branson, who had evaded him since the Barber affair, and still there was no opposition. Then the sheriff ordered his men in line before the Free-State Hotel, and called on Samuel C. Pomeroy, reputed agent of the Emigrant Aid Company, to surrender all arms and the village cannon. Pomeroy offered to wheel out the cannon but said the Sharps rifles were private property over which neither he nor the Emigrant Aid Company had any jurisdiction.
This was unsatisfactory, so the "army" marched into town with fixed bayonets. General William P. Richardson, of the territorial militia, was ostensibly in command. At the head of the regiments and companies rode all the notorious Border Ruffians. With one of the first battalions came George W. Clarke, Indian agent and alleged murderer of Barber. With other units rode dignified A. G. Boone, the Westport merchant. Ex-Senator Atchison led the Plate County (Missouri) Rifles. Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, the editor, rode with the Kickapoo Rangers, apparently unashamed of Brown's murder. Then came Henry Clay Pate, editor of the Border Star, with colors presented his company by the females of Westport. Dark, handsome, and romantic filibuster Titus rode with Buford's men. Ladies adored his complexion, but on horseback his increasing girth showed disadvantageously. Friends wished him luck with the grandiose saloon and gambling establishment he planned for Kansas City.
-0-
Pages 60 and 61:
The sacking of Lawrence frightened property owners in Kansas City. Townsmen warned the Eldridges to sell the interest they had acquired in the American Hotel there, lest it be destroyed and thus give the community a bad name. The brothers realized that they could not keep Ex-Governor Reeder hidden any longer.
They asked Kersey Coates, the successful Pennsylvanian, to arrange with a steamship captain to stop for a passenger at a wharf six miles below town. Then a suit of workman's clothes was purchased for Reeder. The ex-governor shaved off his distinctive side whiskers. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Eldridge took his heavy valise between them, walked out the front door, and crossed the levee to a waiting skiff. The disguised ex-governor came down the stair later, clay pipe in mouth, ax in hand. In the street a mob was gathering to hear a speaker blast the abolitionists. Reeder listened for a few minutes, the picked up his ax and walked to the skiff where his valise was waiting. The oarsman shoved off and the ex-governor escaped.
Details of the capture of Robinson, the escape of Reeder, and the sack of Lawrence were on everybody's lips as a convention of the leading politicians in Illinois assembled on May 29, 1856, to organize the Republican Party in Illinois and work with the national organization. Abraham Lincoln, Whig leader in the state, had been loath to leave his party. Yet he had shown interest in this convention from the first.
-0-
Page 91. Among the wagon trains rumbling into Kansas rote most of the militant free-state men who had fled the territory. The stubby Scotsman, Richard J. Hinton, was reported to be leading a party of five hundred footmen armed by the Boston humanitarian, Theodore Parker. Shalor W. Eldridge, the free-state hotel man, led still another wagon train with Samuel C. Pomeroy, the Emigrant Aid Company's agent. Both had witnessed the May raid on Lawrence and gloried in the retribution rolling across the prairies.
-0-
Pages 127-128.
His persistence paid and in April, 1861, James Henry Lane was elected to the United States Senate, boasting later that of the fifty-six legislators who supported him forty-five wore shoulder straps--"Doesn't Jim Lane look out for his friends?" Bankrupt but triumphant, the Grim Chieftain laid aside his calfskin vest and sealskin coat so familiar to Kansas audiences, boarded up the small slab-sided cabin on the bare lot he called home, and borrowing money for a broadcloth suit, set off for Washington. Lincoln had been President for approximately six weeks when the Grim Chieftain arrived with his coterie of fellow politicians and newsmen. War clouds frowned blackly over Virginia. Rebels were reported concentrating to take the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, and also the navy yard at Gosport. Washington seethed with hysterical rumors--the White House to be burned, the President assassinated! Senator Lane sprang heroically into the breach. He organized his followers and other Kansans in Washington into what he called the Frontier Guard. Armed with Sharps rifles and cutlasses, they marched to the Executive Mansion and bivouacked in the East Room, Lane with a brand-new sword given him by Colonel Hunter, who was still suffering from his broken collarbone. At midnight on April 18, 1861, the President and Secretary of War appeared in the door. The guard lined up for review.
Dan Anthony, Thomas Ewing, Jr., Samuel Pomeroy, and J. A. Cody stood with others in the ranks.
Captain Jim Lane, with a dramatic scowl on his face, stalked before the detachment. If we must have war, let men from the Western border start it here!
-0-
SOURCE: WINFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY.
NOTE: BOOK HAD COME FROM ST JOHN'S LUTHERAN COLLEGE LIBRARY.
BOOK: PUBLICATIONS OF THE KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
EMBRACING RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY DAYS IN KANSAS
BY SHALOR WINCHELL ELDRIDGE
VOLUME II - 1920
KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT
IMRI ZUMWALT, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, 1920
Pages 184-187.
QUANTRILL'S RAID.
Day has just dawned on the 21st of August, 1863, preceded by a restless and sultry night, with but short refreshing sleep overlapping the morning hours. Only the earliest risers were astir. Busy people had just awakened and few had left their rooms. About the hotels and boarding houses only was the stillness disturbed by the morning preparations for guests. At the Eldridge House the help were just entering upon their respective duties and the guests were locked in slumber, when only those alert or most easily wakened heard a few desultory shots, fired at a distance, but in a minute followed by volleys much nearer. Then all at once bedlam broke loose, with whooping and yelling, a storm of promiscuous firing, and the clattering of a thousand hoofs on the hard-beaten streets as horsemen dashed through the town, many of them at a mad gait, firing at everyone they saw running and into every window of the hotel where a head was
exposed.
The first volleys were generally attributed, by those who heard them, to a company of young recruits encamped in the town, celebrating their equipment, for which they had been waiting. But the yells and savage whoops, with horrid imprecations; the clattering of horsemen and promiscuous shooting, incessant and irregular; the squads dashing through the streets, intoned with the rolling thunders of the gong that reverberated through the halls, awoke the slumbering occupants to a full realization that the fears of the most timid had been surpassed; that what had been conceived impossible had happened--the bushwhackers, a name expressive of all that was most atrocious in warfare, were upon them and in undisputed possession of the town.
The help of the Eldridge House, mostly colored, with an instinctive dread of the "secesh," as they termed the rebels, on the first sound of danger took alarm and fled, running to the brushy ravines and over the abrupt bank of the river. This instinctive dread doubtless saved many lives, as but few of them fell victims.
As the occupants of the hotel hurriedly left their rooms and tried to learn the true condition of affairs, the limited views from the windows overlooking the streets furnished all the information they could obtain. That that was appalling and gave not the slightest ground of hope for safety or escape. Even this source of information was curtailed, as the appearance of a head at a window was certain to draw a shot from the raiders who were constantly dashing by, and with drawn revolvers intently watching the building. One glance was enough to reveal the character of the catastrophe that had come upon Lawrence in its most appalling features. Dead bodies could be seen along the sidewalks; men pursued and shot down; any attempt at escape only provoked a fatal shot from a revolver. After the first dash in taking possession of the town, the raiders, drawn to the business street for the purpose of looting, closed these posts of observation. But the savage yells and loud curses, the shots, and incessant clatter of the demon riders, told more to the ear than could be seen by the eye.
To aggravate the dread produced by what was seen and heard, there was the uncertainty as to the strength of the assailants. That they were veritable bushwhackers their manners and their deeds proclaimed from the first. But what were their numbers? Only those who saw their approach to the town could even conjecture. It had been held that only an organized army of considerable strength would dare bring its forces within striking distance of Lawrence. But what was this body? It was far stronger than any band heretofore heard of, and to those who saw only the investment of the town, their numbers were greatly magnified. On their first attack their columns had spread out like a fan, and with squads dashing at the top of their speed had within a few minutes taken possession of every quarter of the place, spreading consternation and marking their course by the dead bodies of their victims, the piercing shrieks of the
wounded, and the cries of widowed women and orphaned children. The rapidity of their movements and the extent of their occupancy within so short a time multiplied every estimate of their numbers; and the boldness of the invasion, the confident manner of the leaders, with the abandon of recklessness that everywhere marked their followers, impressed everyone with a sense of a force impossible to resist.
With the first dash of the raiders the night clerk of the Eldridge House sounded the gong through the corridors with a prolonged roll that aroused all the sleepers but one--an eminent judge who slept through the storm undisturbed until wakened by the hostile guard an hour afterward and marched with the other guests out of the hotel in his stocking feet.
On an informal consultation it was found that there were only two muskets that had been retained, contrary to orders, by members of the military company, but without ammunition. What revolvers were in possession of the guests were found to be in much the same condition as the muskets. Even an army officer, stationed for the time at Lawrence and stopping at the hotel, found his brace of revolvers, like his uniform, only a dangerous encumbrance, as he had waited for an emergency before supplying himself with ammunition.
The first swoop of the savage riders closed all avenues for escaping unobserved. To sally out in a body imperfectly armed, with no common point of rally or known place of safety, was to invite extermination from an overwhelming force eagerly watching for such an opportunity. The ground floor of the hotel was devoted to storerooms, and the broad stairway leading up to the hotel department offered an admirable opportunity for defense against assault. This, with the unknown and probably over-estimated force for resistance which it might contain, saved it from attack. But a vigilant watch was kept upon it. The bushwhackers' code of warfare forbade unnecessary exposure, as redemption of prisoners was impracticable, and wounded comrades would be a fatal hindrance to the rapidity of their movements. Both cellars and stairways were continuously approached and seldom entered by them. Fire was a more effective as well as a safer weapon than revolvers in such cases. The band, drawn together by criminal instincts and beastly passions, on the first taste of blood gave rein to individual caprice, many of them indulging boastfully in a gluttony of blood. To Quantrill and the less brutal of his followers it was the abundant booty, the hundred columns of curling smoke clouding the sky, the heavens licked by mammoth tongues of flame, the fiery eruptions of burning buildings announcing the complete control of the destroying element, the fierce crackling of a multitude of fires, the muffled thunder of falling walls, and the smoking ruins of a demolished city, glorying in its name and loyalty, that offered the crowning triumph of their hazardous expedition.
A review of the situation made it apparent that indiscriminate killing, only so far as to prevent resistance, except in the case of soldiers, "red-legs," and certain proscribed individuals, was an incident rather than a purpose. But the line between incident and purpose was shadowy and left to be determined by individual caprice. As it was apparent that any show of resistance could only hasten impending doom and aggravate the assailants, it seemed to be the instinct of all to accept their fate and wait with a blind hope for some turn of events. Nothing seen or heard from without gave any hope other than of fate deferred. One or two who had escaped from their pursuers and found temporary refuge in the hotel only added to the gloom by accounts of indiscriminate killing, not excepting those who had surrendered or made no attempt to escape.
JAMES CHRISTIAN IS MENTIONED.
The rear windows of the hotel commanded a view of west Lawrence and gave safe points for observation. No shade trees obstructed the vision, and Central park was a ravine with scattering trees, filled with a growth of underbrush. From the upper hall and windows could be seen squads of riders dashing around from point to point, seemingly in a mad chase after game with fugitives in a race for life, making for the brushy ravines. A striking feature of the heartless scene was a lady in a riding habit contrasting with the careless and dingy garb of her escort, accompanying a squad and seeming to lead them, riding with the abandon of the boldest raider, and scurrying from house to house, parleying at each in her circuit of dwellings in west Lawrence. She proved to be Sally Young, a seamstress who held a situation at the Eldridge House. She had been enjoying an early horseback ride with S. S. Horton, and was cut off by a band of raiders closing around the town. Her escort eluding his pursuers and escaping into the country, she submitted to capture, and by her dashing fearlessness won over her captors and drew upon their gallantry for the protection of a list of assumed "brothers," "brothers-in-law," "cousins," and "kinsfolk," embracing all the families of her acquaintance whose names she could recall--among them Governor Shannon, W. H. R. Lykins, and "Jimmy" Christian.
-0-
NOTE: THERE WAS MUCH MORE TO THIS STORY, BUT I MAINLY WANTED
TO COVER EVENTS UP TO SALLY YOUNG SAVING CHRISTIAN.
IT IS APPARENT FROM READING THIS THAT HE LIVED IN WEST
LAWRENCE.
Comments by Col. Shalor Winchell Eldridge.
Having completed the railroad contracts in which for some ten years I had been engaged, I was drawn into this current of emigration, and in company with S. C. Pomeroy and William Lyman I left my home in Southampton, Massachusetts, and arrived at Kansas City on the 3rd day of January, 1855.
While moved as others were, by the desire to help make Kansas a free state, I felt that I could aid the cause best in the way of business by accommodating and forwarding immigration, and my special purpose was to take charge of a hotel in Kansas City which had been purchased by the Emigrant Aid Company as a part of their establishment. The management and lease of the hotel had been urged upon me by Mr. Pomeroy, and having known him from boyhood, the offer was accepted and I set out with him at once to take over the business. . . .
On approaching Kansas City, Pomeroy, who had had experience in the southwest and appreciated the estimation in which a military title is held in the "land of chivalry," turning to me said:
"Eldridge, if you will address me as 'General,' I will reciprocate by calling you 'Colonel.'"
"It is a bargain," said I; and thenceforth our mutual introductions were in accordance with the strictest rules of military etiquette. This reciprocal brevet proved as effectual for both of us as would official commissions, and our military titles, assumed for diversion, have adhered to us through life.
The only hotel in the town was the Gillis House, situated on the levee. It had been purchased for the New England Emigrant Aid Company, to be used as a depot for the "organized emigration" which they were directing to Kansas. Being satisfied with the business prospects that appeared so flattering, I accepted a lease of the property from "General" Pomeroy, who was the financial agent of the company. The building was renovated, the name changed to "American House," and reopened to the public with improved service.
The pioneer party of antislavery emigrants left Boston, July 17, 1854, and arrived in Kansas City, July 30. Mr. Pomeroy remained in Kansas City and purchased the Union Hotel (now the old Gillis House on the levee), to be used as a rendezvous for immigrants and agency of the society [New England Emigrant Aid Society].
The Free State Hotel in Lawrence, afterward made famous by its indictment and destruction before it had been opened to the public, was under construction by the Emigrant Aid Company and designed to be in readiness for the first immigration of the coming spring. Thinking that it would afford a desirable extension of my business, I effected a five years' lease of the property and in the autumn of 1855 went east to purchase the necessary furnishing and equipment for the hotel. Returning in November, I brought my family, consisting of my wife and four daughters, and household goods, with the determination of making Kansas henceforth my permanent home. Accompanying us were two of my former neighbors, Almin Clapp, who assisted me in business for a time; and one who was destined to become the founder of the school system of Lawrence and prominent in the religious work and business affairs of the town, Charles L. Edwards. Mr. Edwards came out as secretary to General Pomeroy, the financial agent of the Emigrant Aid Company, and made his home in my family, both while in Kansas City and afterward in Lawrence. We were also joined by my brother Thomas, who came to take a partnership with me in business.
-0-
Page 89...
MRS. LEARNARD'S STORY.
NOTE: MARY SOPHIA ELDRIDGE BECAME MRS. O. E. LEARNARD.
"We came to Kansas City, Mo., in November, 1855, remaining there at the Gillis House through the winter. About the first week in May we arrived in Lawrence at the Free State hotel, where we expected to spend five years. We came from Kansas City in ambulances, arriving in Lawrence about four o'clock in the afternoon. Instead of staying in the house a term of five years, we were only permitted to remain about two weeks, when the hotel was destroyed and we were driven out of our home by a band of outlaws who acted under the authority of the government of the United States. This destruction of the town has been named 'the sacking of Lawrence,' and was one of the numerous attempts of the Proslavery party, then dominant, to overawe and suppress the free-state sentiment in the territory. Sheriff Jones, who led the mob, claimed to be acting under an order of the Federal court, based on indictments against the Free State hotel, Governor Robinson's house, and other buildings, and the printing presses. The people were powerless to protect themselves, and it would have been treason to offer resistance. The hotel had not been formally opened, but was to have been the following week.
The only persons rooming in the hotel, besides the family, were Charles L. Edward, General Pomeroy, and S. N. Simpson."
"The hotel was built of stone, three stories and basement, with a broad hall running through from east to west. On the right, as one entered, was the reception room; on the left the parlor, handsomely furnished. Just beyond the reception room was the office, and next on the same side were the rooms occupied by the family. The stairs to both upper and lower floors were opposite to our rooms and the office. The dining room was on the southwest in the basement."
"On the morning of the 21st of May, 1856, as we looked from the west door we saw that the point of Mount Oread was covered with tents, containing Capt. Wm. P. Fain and his posse of between 400 and 500 men. They could not be dignified by the name of soldiers, for they really looked like the very offscourings of humanity. We hoped, even then, that the hotel would not be disturbed. These invaders had been expected for some time, and I can recall a consultation held between father and mother as to whether it would not be best for mother to take the children and go down to Kansas City on a small boat that happened to be here at that time.
"That mother was a woman of sterling qualities, brave and true! She said, 'We came here to make this our home, and I believe that it is right for us to stay until we are obliged to leave.' And we did stay until we were driven out.
"My father, thinking it good policy, invited the marshal with his officers to take dinner at the house, in order to convince the ruffians that the building was not an arsenal--for they pretended to think it such--but the home of his family, and a place where the weary traveler could find rest and refreshment. He treated them to the best the house afforded, and although the food supplies of the town were rather limited, father had large supplies of everything preparatory to opening the hotel.
"The ruffians accepted the invitation, but it is needless to say that it did not have the desired effect, for in a very short time after the family had had their dinner the little bell boy brought the call bell from the office to the sitting room, struck it as he placed it on the table, saying, 'Your father has been notified that he will have just one hour and forty minutes to move his family and furniture.' . . . My father thought it useless to try to save anything except such articles as could be carried in our trunks. The excitement gave me strength [she had been quite ill], and I helped dress my sisters, and they were sent over to Mrs. Hoyt's back of the hotel. . . ."
-0-
James Christian saved "Senator Pomeroy" and Judge Miller of Lawrence May 21, 1856, during the period when the Free State Hotel was burned.
ONLY REFERENCE TO MILLER IS THE FOLLOWING.
PAGE 52...
"The first attack was by one of the companies under the leadership of G. W. Clark, a United States Indian agent, notorious as the murderer of Barber. He had been assigned the destruction of the printing office of the Kansas Free State, published by Josiah Miller and R. G. Elliott, that occupied the upper floor over the store room of W. H. and C. S. Duncan.
"The ruffians ascended the stairs cautiously as if fearing an ambuscade, but once in the room they vied with each other in the work of destruction. The press and fixtures were broken up with axe and sledgehammer. Files and exchanges, with a six months' stock of paper and a half-printed edition of the Free State were tossed through the windows into the street and scattered by the winds over the prairie for a mile around. Cases of type were carried to the river and thrown in. Boxes of books, constituting a library of 300 volumes, were hacked to pieces with sabers; and when the destruction was complete, the company marched back to its quarters, each member carrying a mutilated book on the point of his bayonet. Another company entered the office of the Herald of Freedom. The red flag of the South Carolina company was hoisted over the building, and the work of destruction begun. Everything pertaining to the office was reduced to complete ruin."
SPECULATION: WAS THE OFFICE OF CHRISTIAN CLOSE TO WHERE THE NEWSPAPERS WERE? WAS JOSIAH MILLER LATER KNOWN AS JUDGE MILLER?
JERRY CASE BROUGHT US CLIPPING FROM JANUARY 2, 1890, TRAVELER...
A Portrait of Jim Lane.
Sunday's Topeka Capital contained the following letter from Judge Christian of this city.
Hon. James Christian has given the State Historical society a photo portrait of General James H. Lane. The portrait represents Senator Lane as in 1862 standing, robed in military cloak and in one of the most favorable and characteristic attitudes. He gives the society also his own portrait, and writes the following letter to Secretary Adams.
"Arkansas City, Kan., December 23, 1889.
"Hon. Frank G. Adams, Secretary of the State Historical Society.
"Enclosed find two photographs, cabinet size, of two individuals with whom you were once acquainted, and doubtless many of the early settlers of Kansas have heard of.
"This one of James H. Lane was taken in 1862 at Washington, as senator of Kansas, at the age of 47. The other is his old law partner, your friend, at 70, taken in 1889.
"If you think them worthy of a place in your society, they are at your disposal.
I am, very respectfully, your old friend,
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
-0-
[FROM JERRY CASE...COWLEY COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY.]
BOOK: KANSAS CYCLOPEDIA OF STATE HISTORY...
EDITED BY FRANK W. BLACKMAR, A. M., Ph.d.
VOLUME II OF TWO VOLUMES
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY - CHICAGO - COPYRIGHT 1912.
Pages 524 ...
Quantrill, William Clarke, THE NOTORIOUS GUERRILLA LEADER, was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, July 31, 1837, and was the oldest of a family of eight children. His parents were from Hagerstown, Maryland. Thomas H. Quantrill, his father, was a tinner by trade, and at one time was principal of the Canal Dover Union school. His mother's maiden name was Caroline Clarke. Young Quantrill is said to have enjoyed the advantages of good training and at the age of sixteen years taught a term of school in Ohio. He got into trouble and came to Kansas in 1857, working for Col. Torrey in Lykins (Miami) county. He next taught a term of school in Stanton, Miami county, then made a trip to Utah and returned with the suspicion of murder clinging to him. During his residence in Kansas, part of the time under the assumed name of Charley Hart, he acquired the reputation of a moral degenerate and was regarded by those who knew him as a petty thief. He narrowly escaped lynching at the hands of citizens of Independence and Jackson County, Missouri, for the despicable part he played during the Morgan-Walker episode, in which he led an expedition into Missouri for the ostensible purpose of liberating slaves, killing one of his companions, and betraying the others, all of whom were slain. He joined the southern sympathizers and during the Civil war was at the head of a band of guerrillas, all of whom were experts in the use of firearms and fought mercilessly under the black flag. On Aug. 23, 1863, at the head of his followers, he led an attack on Lawrence, burning the town and engaging in a butchery without a parallel in modern warfare. On Oct. 6 the same year he made an attack on the Federal forces at Baxter Springs and killed about 100 defenseless soldiers. During the latter part of the war he and his followers were driven east of the Mississippi river, and he was captured near Taylorsville, Kentucky, May 10, 1865, after a fight in which he was badly wounded. His death occurred at the military hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, June 6, 1865.
---
Quantrill's Raid. At the beginning of the Civil war in 1861 William C. Quantrill was living among the Cherokee Indians. He joined a company which entered the Confederate service, serving for a time with Gen. McCullough and later under Gen. Price. The discipline of an organized army was not to Quantrill's taste, however. He wanted more freedom of movement, especially in the privilege of pillaging the homes of those whom he vanquished. Gathering about him a number of kindred spirits he organized a gang of guerrillas and began operations in western Missouri.
As his success became more marked, he grew bolder and made several raids into Kansas, plundering the towns of Olathe, Shawnee, Spring Hill, Aubrey, and a few others. Early in March, 1862, his gang of guerrillas had been declared outlaws by the Federal authorities, but Quantrill cared nothing for the declaration. None of his raids in 1862 extended into Kansas over 15 miles and the people of Lawrence, being about 40 miles from the border, felt little apprehension that the city would ever be attacked. True, some precautions were taken to guard against a surprise, but they were generally of a desultory character and were not continued. When Gen. Collamore became mayor he secured a small body of troops to patrol the city, but the military authorities concluded such action was unnecessary and the soldiers were ordered elsewhere.
On the night of August 19, 1863, Quantrill assembled 294 men at Columbus, Missouri, where they were organized into four companies and quietly the plans were made for an attack upon Lawrence. Two of Quantrill's companies were commanded by Bill Todd and Bill Anderson, "two of the most desperate and bloodthirsty of the border chieftains." Other who accompanied him were Dick Yeager and the James boys, who afterward became notorious. About 5 o'clock on the afternoon of the 20th they crossed the state line into Kansas, within plain view of a camp of a small detachment of Union soldiers, but as the guerrillas outnumbered the troops five to one, Capt. Pike, in command of the camp, offered no resistance, contenting himself with sending word of the movement to Kansas City. About 11 o'clock that night they passed Gardiner, where they burned a house or two and killed a man. At 3 o'clock in the morning they went through Hesper. The moon had gone down, and being ignorant of the way, they took a boy from a house and compelled him to lead them to Lawrence. The raiders entered Franklin 4 miles east of Lawrence at the first break of day, but were very quiet, so as not to arouse attention. Two miles east of Lawrence, they passed the farm of Rev. S. S. Snyder and shot him in his barnyard. A mile further on they met young Hoffman Collamore, the son of Mayor Collamore, who replied indifferently to the queries about his destination and they fired upon him. Both he and his pony fell, as if dead, but the boy
recovered.
Mr. Cordley narrates that when they drew near the town they seemed to hesitate and waver. "Coming from the east," says he, "the town appeared in its full proportions, as the first light of the morning sun shone on it. It is said some of them were disposed to turn back. But Quantrill said he was going in, and they might follow who would. Two horsemen were sent in advance of the troop to see that all was quiet. They rode through the main street without attracting attention.
. . . They returned to the main body and reported the way clear. They now moved on quite rapidly but quietly and cautiously. When they came to the high ground facing Massachusetts street, not far from where the park now is, the command was given in clear tones, 'On to the town!' Instantly the whole body bounded forward with the yell of demons. They came first upon a camp of unarmed recruits for the Fourteenth Kansas regiment. They had just taken in their guards and were rising from their beds. On these the raiders fired as they passed, killing 17 of the 22. This diversion did not stop the speed of the general advance. A few turned aside to run down and shoot the fleeing soldiers, but the main body swept on down Rhode Island street. When the head of the column came about to Henry street the command was heard all over that section, 'On to the hotel! On to the hotel!' At this they wheeled obliquely to the left and in a few moments were dashing down Massachusetts street toward the Eldridge house. In all the bloody scenes which followed, nothing surpassed for wildness and terror that which now presented itself. The horsemanship of the guerrillas was perfect. They rode with that ease and abandon of men who had spent their lives in the saddle amid rough and desperate scenes. They were dressed in the traditional butternut and belted about with revolvers."
These horsemen sat with bodies erect and arms free, "some with a revolver in each hand, shooting at each house or person they passed, and yelling at every bound. On each side of the stream of fire were men falling dead and wounded, and women and children half-dressed, running and screaming, some trying to escape from danger, and others rushing to the side of their murdered friends."
When they reached the Eldridge hotel, the raiders expected resistance and paused a moment in contemplation. Capt. A. R. Banks, provost marshal of the state, opened a window, displayed a white shirt, called for Quantrill and surrendered the house to him, stipulating the safety of the guests. The raiders ransacked the hotel, but Quantrill bade the guests to go to the City hotel, where they would be safe. The prisoners lost no time in obeying Quantrill, who, strange to relate, kept his word with them. As soon as the Eldridge house had surrendered, the raiders scattered all over the town in bands of 6 or 8, taking house by house and street by street.
Says Cordley: "The events of the next three hours has no parallel outside the annals of savage warfare. History furnishes no other instance of so large a number of such desperate men, so heavily armed, were let perfectly loose upon an unsuspecting and helpless community."
Instead of growing weary of their work as the morning advanced, they secured liquor that made them more lawless, reckless, brutal, and barbarous than when they came. They said they had orders "to kill every man and burn every house," and while they did not fulfill their commands, they set about their task as if that were their intention. They were a rough, coarse, brutal, desperate lot of men, each of whom carried from two to six revolvers, while many also carried carbines. The attack had been perfectly planned. Every man seemed to know his place and what he was to do. So quietly were detachments made, every section of the town was occupied before the citizens comprehended what was happening. With a very few exceptions the raiders had their own way. For some four hours the town was at their mercy--and no mercy was shown. Along the business street they did the most thorough work, robbing buildings and shooting the occupants. Then the torch was applied and throughout the town a reign of terror prevailed. Every house had its story of incredible brutality or a remarkable escape. Many were saved by their own quick wit and the bravery of the women.
Quantrill did not return the way he came, for he had information that Maj. Plumb was approaching from the east with a body of troops. After four hours' horrible work, all ceased their work of plundering and assembled for departure. To avoid Maj. Plumb they went south, crossing the Wakarusa at Blanton's bridge. They kept up their work of destruction as they went away, burning nearly all of the farm houses they passed. Gen. James H. Lane with a few followers pursued them, as did the regular troops, but the raiders finally escaped to their hiding places along the border. Lawrence spent the following week burying its dead, of which there were 142, as nearly as an estimate could be made. For some time the intense gloom and grief forbade any thought of the future, but the day came when they rallied their spirits and rebuilt their town and homes.
In 1875 the legislature of Kansas appointed a commission "to examine and certify the amount of losses of citizens of the State of Kansas by the invasion of guerrillas and marauders during the years 1861 to 1865." The towns molested had been Lawrence, Olathe, Humboldt, Altoona, Paola, and Fort Scott. In 1887 the legislature enacted a law providing for its assumption and payment of these claims for losses.
-0-
Lawrence, the county seat of Douglas county, an incorporated city of the second class, is one of the oldest and most historic cities in Kansas. In June, 1854, a few days after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the New England Emigrant Aid Society sent Dr. Charles Robinson and Charles H. Branscomb to select a location for a colony. Some years before that Dr. Robinson had passed the place where Lawrence now stands on his way to California, and that spot was finally chosen as a site for the proposed settlement. The first party of emigrants arrived on July 31, 1854.
Not a house had been erected and 25 tents were pitched on the north end of Mount Oread, where the state university now stands, to afford shelter while the first rude cabins were being built. The second party of 114 persons arrived on September 9th, and a meeting was held on the 18th to organize a town company. Two days later an organization was effected, and on the 25th the work of laying out the city was commenced. The new town was named Lawrence, in honor of Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston, Massachusetts, who had been active in the movement to colonize Kansas with people opposed to slavery.
About the time the survey of the city began, a boarding house was opened by Mrs. Levi Gates and Mrs. William Bruce, two women who came with the first party of colonists. A little later a second hotel, called the "Astor House," was opened nearer the Kansas river. By cold weather Lawrence had a population of 750.
The fact that Lawrence was settled by free-state men drew forth the wrath of the pro-slaveryites against the prospective city. In fact, before the first settlers arrived, some Missourians had crossed over into the territory and gone through the form of taking claims under the preemption laws, but very few of them complied with the provisions of the law with regard to occupancy.
The first emigrants from New England found two of these men--John Baldwin and a man named Sears--on the site of Lawrence. The latter had improved his claim of 160 acres to some extent. Mr. Branscomb bought this claim for $500, which was paid from the treasury of the society, but Baldwin refused either to sell or to submit the question to the courts or to an arbitration committee. Associating with him a lawyer and a real estate speculator, the three proceeded to lay out a rival town, which they named Excelsior. They attempted to remove a tent belonging to the aid society, but were prevented, and Baldwin threatened to call to his aid 3,000 Missourians, who would expel the free-state men. This did not intimidate the Robinson party and Baldwin finally withdrew.
On Oct. 9, 1854, Dr. Robinson, S. Y. Lum, John Mailey, A. D. Searle, and O. A. Hanscomb were elected trustees of the town association, and on the 30th another party of 230 people arrived from the East. On Jan. 16, 1855, the first free school was opened in a room in the rear of Dr. Robinson's office with E. P. Fitch as teacher, and by Feb. 1 three newspapers had been started--the Herald of Freedom by George W. Brown, the Kansas Pioneer by John Speer, and the Kansas Free State by Miller & Elliott.
In March, 1855, a census was taken, the district in which Lawrence was situated reporting 369 voters. With the opening of spring a number of new buildings, including a hotel and several business houses, were commenced. Three mail routes were established, connecting Lawrence with Topeka, Leavenworth, Osawatomie, Fort Scott, and Kansas City. Great progress was made during the summer and early fall, but late in November came the Wakarusa war, which kept the people of Lawrence in a state of siege for over a week, causing them to fear for the safety of their lives and homes.
The Free State hotel, built by the Emigrant Aid company at a cost of some $20,000, was completed in the spring of 1856. It occupied the site of the present Eldridge House, and it was badly damaged by a posse under Samuel J. Jones, sheriff of Douglas county, on May 21, under pretense of serving some writs. At the same time the newspaper offices were dismantled, the presses broken to pieces, the type thrown into the river, stores and dwellings were looted, and Dr. Robinson's residence was burned.
Although Lawrence was incorporated by the first territorial legislature, the citizens never organized under that charter, because they refused to recognize the authority of a legislature elected by alien votes. For the same reason they also refused to accept an amended charter at the hands of the second session of the legislature. In 1857, realizing the need of a better municipal government, the citizens adopted a charter for themselves. This brought them into direct conflict with the territorial authorities and for a time serious trouble was threatened.
The free-state legislature of 1858 passed a charter bill, which became effective on Feb. 11, and on the 20th was held the first city election. C. W. Babcock was elected mayor; Caleb S. Pratt, clerk; Wesley Duncan, treasurer; Joseph Cracklin, marshal; Robert Morrow, P. R. Books, L. C. Tolles, E. S. Lowman, John G. Haskell, M. Hartman, Henry Shanklin, A. J. Totten. S. W. Eldridge, A. H. Mallory, L. Bullene, and F. A. Bailey, councilmen.
The legislature of 1860 "amended and consolidated the several acts relating to the city of Lawrence" into one act of 114 sections which was approved by Gov. Medary on Feb. 27. It defined the corporate limits of the city as follows.
"Beginning in the middle of the Kansas river, opposite a point where the east side of Maryland street intersects the south bank of said river; thence south to the shore, and in the east line of Maryland street 4,290 feet to the south side of Adams street; then west 5,310 feet, to the west side of Illinois street; thence north 3,380 feet, to the south side of Warren street; thence west 4,560 feet; thence north 5,500 feet; thence east 5,620 feet, to the Kansas river; thence continuing to the middle of the same, and down said river to the place of beginning."
The first state legislature passed a bill submitting to the people the question of the location of the permanent seat of government, and on Nov. 5, 1861, Lawrence received 5,291 votes for the state capital to 7,966 votes for Topeka.
The legislature of 1863 located the state university at Lawrence, and on Aug. 21 of that year occurred the most disastrous event in the city's history, when the guerrilla leader, Quantrill, with a large force of ruffians, made a raid on the town, destroyed a large amount of property, and killed a number of citizens.
THERE WAS MORE, BUT I QUIT AT THIS POINT.
-0-
Wakarusa War. During the summer and fall of 1855, excitement ran high in Kansas on account of the struggle between the free-state and pro-slavery parties. Several events occurred which made strife between men of opposing political interests more bitter. Charles W. Dow, a free-state man, was shot by Franklin N. Coleman, a pro-slavery leader of Hickory Point, in a dispute over a claim. This occurred on Nov. 21, 1855, and was the beginning of a series of difficulties which led to the Wakarusa war. The culminating event was the rescue by free-state men of Jacob Branson, with whom Dow had lived, after his arrest by Samuel J. Jones, sheriff of Douglas county. Jones at once started for Franklin with his posse, and sent a dispatch to his father-in-law, Col. Boone, at Westport, Missouri, asking for aid to recapture Branson. Word was also sent to Gov. Shannon at the Shawnee Mission, for 3,000 men to put down the rebellion at Lawrence. There are people who believe that the whole affair was planned as a trap to catch the free-state men and to serve as an excuse for the destruction of Lawrence.
Without ascertaining the actual condition of affairs, the governor issued a proclamation calling out the militia of Kansas--which really meant the ruffians of Missouri--to put down the rebellion at Lawrence. The people of Missouri were ready and were not long in responding to the call.
Holloway, in his History of Kansas, says, "For two or three counties back from the western line of Missouri, troops were sent fully equipped and expecting to fight." In three days some 1,500 had rushed across the border and were confronting Lawrence. Said Gov. Shannon: "Missouri sent not only her young men, but her gray-haired citizens were there. The man of seventy winters stood shoulder to shoulder with the youth of sixteen. There were volunteers in that camp and fray." The main camp of the besiegers was near Franklin, about 3 miles southeast of Lawrence, and the other wing was in position near Lecompton, under command of Strickler and Richardson.
In Lawrence preparations for defense were going on. As soon as it was learned that a force was gathering on the Wakarusa, all those concerned with the rescue of Branson were requested to leave Lawrence. This was done to show that the town had taken no part in the rescue.
A committee of safety was appointed which organized the citizens into guards of 15 or 20 men in a squad, by enrolling them and taking their residence, so that they could be called out at any moment. In this way they were enabled to pursue their business and still be ready to take up arms at a signal.
The news of the threatened invasion and the intention to destroy Lawrence spread rapidly through the territory, with the result that the free-state men rushed to the aid of the besieged, until there were probably 800 men armed and equipped for defense in the town.
The committee of safety appointed Dr. Charles Robinson commander-in-chief of all the forces, with Col. J. H. Lane second in command. Lyman Allen commanded the Lawrence Stubbs; Samuel Walker, the company from Bloomington; Maj. Abbott, the Wakarusa company; a man named Shore, the Ottawa Creek company; McWheeney, the company from Palmyra; and the Pottawatomie company was under the command of John Brown, who arrived with his four sons, arms, and ammunition just as the treaty of peace was about to be signed.
Every house was filled with soldiers and the free-state hotel was used as a barracks.
Five redoubts were built, which commanded every approach to the city. The largest was erected on Massachusetts street near the crossing of Pinckney. It was circular, made of hewn timber, against which an earth embankment was thrown up about 5 feet high and 4 feet wide at the top, while surrounding it was a deep entrenchment. It was designed as a retreat for the women and children in case of an attack. The second line of works was on Massachusetts street, consisting of three rude forts in a line across Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island streets coinciding to that of Henry street. The third was a circular redoubt built on an elevation a little north of Henry street between Massachusetts street and was built to repulse an attack from Mount Oread, should one be made in that direction. The fifth was on Kentucky street, commanding an entrance from a ravine on the west. A cannon which had been sent to Kansas City was also smuggled into the besieged town.
The siege was really commenced on Saturday, December 1, 1855, and lasted about a week. The forces on both sides were prepared for war. The defenders spent much time in drilling and strengthening their position, while the invaders waited the command of Sheriff Jones to move upon Lawrence. The Sharp's rifles that had been shipped to Lawrence from New England became of immense value at this time, as the fear of them kept the enemy from a sudden attack.
Blackmar, in his Life of Charles Robinson, says: "It was a strange spectacle, almost a comedy had it not been so near a tragedy, and in any case was certainly a travesty on free government, for the United States Senator Atchison to be commanding this singular horde, while Governor Shannon was hurrying other commands to the scene of war. There was no excuse for it all. The rescuers of Branson had left the town, and there was not a day in which Jones might not go through Lawrence unmolested in doing his duty. He actually did go to the town and return without being disturbed. Gov. Shannon became alarmed first for the safety of the attacking Missourians, and second for the safety of Lawrence. He sent to Col. Sumner, at Leavenworth, for United States troops, but Sumner would not come without orders from Washington."
From the surrounding towns Lawrence continued to receive reinforcements, who were usually surprised to find that the inhabitants were strictly on the defensive instead of the aggressive as reported by the pro-slavery men. Finally the citizens sent a delegation to the governor to acquaint him with the true situation. Being incredulous, he was persuaded to go to Lawrence to see for himself, and upon his arrival was amazed at the situation. The besiegers and besieged were brought into conference by him.
The governor, Col. Boone, of Westport, Missouri, Col. Kearney, of Independence, Missouri, and Gen. Strickler, of Kansas, were duly conducted to Lawrence and to the rooms of the committee of safety in the Free-State hotel. Dr. Robinson and Col. Lane conducted the negotiations on the part of the free-state men, as members of the committee of safety, and after both sides of the question had been discussed, the governor suggested that a treaty be drawn up and signed by the leaders, which was done.
Blackmar, in his Life of Charles Robinson, says: "It was an excellent way out of a dilemma, but here was another scene in the drama of spectacular government; the town of Lawrence in rebellion, treating with the Kansas militia, the latter commanded by officers living in Missouri."
The good will of the people of Lawrence and their genuine desire to settle the war was shown by the treaty. After it was signed Robinson and Lane accompanied the governor to the camp of the militia, where Gov. Shannon persuaded them to accept the treaty and withdraw. This was not easily accomplished, but the Missourians finally started for home.
-0-
Pomeroy, Samuel Clark, pioneer and United States senator, was born at Southampton, Massachusetts, January 3, 1816; was educated at Amherst College, and in 1840 became an enthusiastic opponent of slavery. He was present when President Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and remarked to the president: "Your victory is but an adjournment of the question from the halls of legislation at Washington to the prairies of the freedom-loving West, and there, sir, we shall beat you." To assist in carrying out his prophecy he left Boston in August, 154, with 200 people bound for Kansas, and upon arriving in the territory located at Atchison. He canvassed the Eastern states in the interest of the free-state cause; was one of a party arrested by Col. Cooke on the Nebraska river in October, 1856, but was released by Gov. Geary upon his arrival at Topeka; was a member of the Osawatomie convention in May, 1859, that organized the Republican party in Kansas, and served on the first state executive committee of that party. In connection with his management of the aid committee for the relief of the people of Kansas in the great drought of 1860 he was charged with irregular conduct, but was exonerated in March, 1861, by a committee composed of W. W. Guthrie, F. P. Baker, and C. B. Lines. On April 4, 1861, he was elected one of the first United States senators from Kansas, and was reelected in 1867. During the troubles over the Cherokee Neutral Lands, many of the people of the state lost confidence in Mr. Pomeroy, and in 1873 he was defeated in reelection to the senate by John J. Ingalls. It was in connection with this senatorial election that State Senator A. M. York of Montgomery county made his sensational charges of bribery against Senator Pomeroy.
The charges were investigated by a committee of the United States senate and also by a joint committee of the Kansas legislature. On March 3, 1873, a majority of the former committee reported that "the whole transaction, whatever view be taken of it, is the result of a concerted plot to defeat Mr. Pomeroy." Three days later the committee of the state legislature reported Mr. Pomeroy "guilty of the crime of bribery, and attempting to corrupt, by offers of money, members of the legislature." He was arraigned for trial before Judge Morton at Topeka on June 8, 1874, but a change of venue was taken to Osage county. After delays and continuances the case was dismissed on March 12, 1875. On Oct. 11, 1873, while the political opposition to Mr. Pomeroy was at its height he was shot by Martin F. Conway in Washington, the bullet entering the right breast, inflicting a painful but not serious wound. Conway claimed that Pomeroy had ruined himself and his family. After the bribery case against him was dismissed, Mr. Pomeroy returned to the East and died at Whitinsville, Massachusetts, August 27, 1891.
-0-
Miller, Josiah, who started one of the first newspapers in Kansas, was born in Chester district, South Carolina, November 12, 1828. He was educated at the Indiana University, where he graduated in 1851, after which he also graduated at the law school at Poughkeepsie, New York, and in August, 1854, he came to Kansas. As his father had been waylaid and mobbed because of his anti-slavery views, it was but natural that Josiah should be an ardent opponent of slavery, and on January 5, 1855, he began the publication of the "Kansas Free State" at Lawrence. A pro-slavery jury found an indictment against him for maintaining a nuisance in the publication of this paper, and on May 21, 1856, his printing office was destroyed by the territorial authorities. In that year he made speeches in several states for John C. Fremont, the Republican candidate for president, and in 1857 was elected probate judge of Douglas county.
In 1861 he was a member of the first state senate, but resigned his seat in that body to become postmaster at Lawrence. While in the senate he was chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1863 he was appointed a paymaster in the army, with the rank of major, and in 1806 was elected a member of the legislature. His death occurred at Lawrence on July 7, 1870, after having a leg amputated. The inscription on the monument erected to his memory in Oak Hill cemetery credits him with being the author of the motto, "Ad astra per aspera," on the Kansas seal of state.
-0-
Arkansas City Traveler, January 26, 1876.
Business advertisement for "James Christian, Attorney and Counselor, Arkansas City, Kansas. Formerly of Lawrence, Kansas."
Arkansas City Traveler, April 5, 1876.
James Christian was elected Police Judge with 71 of the 73 votes cast.
Letter from Christian:
ARKANSAS CITY, COWLEY CO., April 29th, 1876.
DEAR STANDARD: Of late I have been somewhat remiss in giving you items from this section of the State. In fact, there was but little to write about, and items of news are like cat feathers, few and far between.
Our town is decidedly dull; you can scarcely see a farmer in town, and when they do come, all the talk is about wheat harvesters, reapers, droppers, headers, and such like.
Our merchants are doing little, except Channell & Haywood, and the Benedict Brothers, agricultural implement dealers. They seem busy putting up machinery for the farmers. Our streets are blocked up with great big things that look like walking wind mills, but there will be a demand for them all. You can have no conception of the enormous amount of wheat to be cut in this county, besides rye and barley. I have no doubt but that hundreds of men and machines from the northern parts of the State could find profitable employment during the harvest in this county. There must and will be a scarcity of hands and machines, there is so much to cut and so little time to do it in.
Our weather is now very warm and grain coming on rapidly. Rye, barley, and wheat are now heading out. The rye and barley will be ready to cut in three weeks from this time, and wheat from the 1st to the 10th of June. In riding over the country, you will see wheat in all stages of height, from eighteen inches to four feet. A better prospect for a full crop was never seen in Southern Kansas than at present.
I meet a farmer, asking him how much wheat he has in this year, his answer is, "Well, I have only about 120 acres myself, but my neighbor A has 170 acres, and B., just east of me, 150 acres, and a man across the creek has over 200 acres all looking splendid."
One man on the Walnut has 430 acres in wheat, old Mr. Holmes. How is that for high in a five year old county?
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 12, 1876.
WANTED. A girl to do house work at El Paso; enquire of William Marshall, the stage driver, or James Christian, at the Express office, Arkansas City.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 12, 1876.
We would call attention to Judge Christian's call to the farmers, and hope they will respond liberally, as it is for the general good of our county that this grain is to be forwarded. Bring in your samples.
NOTICE:
To the farmers of Creswell and adjoining townships.
GENTLEMEN: I want to get a few samples of this year's crop of wheat threshed from the stackCsay about a pound eachCto be sent to New York, at the request of a prominent gentleman of that city, for inspection. Please send me your name, the number of acres raised, the quarter section, township, and range where raised, and greatly oblige yours,
JAMES CHRISTIAN,
At the Express Office, Arkansas City.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 3, 1877.
For Police Judge, James Christian received 112 votes, and Rev. David Thompson 1.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 13, 1876.
"SO FAR, SO GOOD" [Judge Christian] notified C. M. Scott that Miss Georgie Christian, engaged as assistant teacher in the Arkansas City schools, is perhaps the only native born Kansas teacher in the State. "The practice heretofore, in all parts of the State, has been to send East and import a teacher, with little or no experience, while we have native talent at home in persons that are fully capable and need the situation."
Arkansas City Traveler, April 3, 1877.
NEW ARRIVALS. On the night of the 29th of March, at the residences of two of our citizens, Judge Christian and J. M. Holloway, each of said families have two additional mouths to provide for. The youngsters are all pert and lively. With this kind of immigration, Cowley will soon take rank with the most populous counties in the State.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 3, 1877.
FLORAL P. O., March 25, 1877.
MR. SCOTT: Although not a constant reader of your paper, I see it occasionally, through the friendship of my old Kentucky friend, James Christian, of your place. I see your people are advocating a railroad down the Walnut Valley, and I saw your petition and signed it last week, but at the time I told Mr. Christian that I would vote against it. But I have been consid-ering the matter over in my own mind, and have come to the conclusion to vote for the bonds.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 3, 1877.
CITY ELECTION. The election of city officers took place last Monday, quietly and peaceably, with the following result.
Mayor: Dr. Kellogg.
Police Judge: Jas. Christian.
Councilmen: James Benedict, H. P. Farrar, James I. Mitchell, H. Godehard, I. H. Bonsall.
There was another ticket in the field, composed of Wm. Sleeth for Mayor, Judge Christian for Police Judge, and A. A. Newman, O. P. Houghton, E. D. Eddy, J. A. Loomis, and J. T. Shepard, for Councilmen; but as one was composed of, or was generally understood to be "license" men, the issue was made "license" and "anti-license," and the vote stood 70 for the former and 41 for the latter. Both tickets were composed of the best men of the community.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 11, 1877.
Railroad Matters.
The committee who went from this place to Augusta, learning that Mr. Young and Gov. Eskridge intended going to Winfield to confer with the people of that place, at the urgent request of one of the citizens and a member of the Railroad Committee of Winfield, sent word for a delegation to come up to agree to a new proposition. A number went, but upon their arrival, found that no agreement could be made, as the Committee of Winfield had stated they could entertain any proposition from the north, as they had one from the east. Mr. Young and Gov. Eskridge then came to this place and submitted the proposition to Creswell Township to build their road down the west side of the Walnut by township aid. The same proposition will be submitted to Rock, Nennescah, Vernon, Beaver, Cresswell, Bolton, and probably Pleasant Valley Townships, and if the aid is rendered, the road will be built.
In the evening a large and enthusiastic meeting was held at the church, during which a stirring speech was made by Mr. Eskridge, and remarks by Mr. Young, Rev. Fleming, Judge Christian, Amos Walton, Mr. Channell, and others, after which a committee of eleven were appointed as follows, as Managing Committee, with power to appoint Finance, Canvassing, and Sub-Committees: Dr. Hughes, O. P. Houghton, C. M. Scott, A. A. Newman, James Christian, J. C. McMullen, S. B. Fleming, M. R. Leonard, Amos Walton, R. C. Haywood and S. P. Channell.
The Committee then elected Dr. Hughes, President, J. C. McMullen, Vice President, Amos Walton, Secretary, and R. C. Haywood, Treasurer. The hour being late, the Committee then adjourned.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 25, 1877. Front Page.
To the Citizens of Cowley County.
A FEW FACTS ON RAILROAD.
Citizens of Cowley County, let us reason together. Do you really and sincerely want a railroad into or through our beautiful county? If you do, act like sensible men. Come out in your might and crush the hired minions that are trying to deceive you by false propositions and bogus companies, not worth a dollar. Men who may mean well enough, but who could not raise a dollar for any such purpose to save their necks from the halter.
I do not wish to impugn the motives of any man, but when I see men act as some are acting in this county, I am constrained to believe that they are dishonest, for no honest man will sail under false colors. No honest man will be untruthful; these men are not deceived as to the ability of the men comprising the Parsons Narrow Gauge Company, commonly termed the East and West route. Several of them are good fair men, but they do not pretend to be capitalists or have a dollar to put into railroads, and should they ever get to Parsons, there is no evidence that they will build a narrow gauge any farther. Then where are you? Where is Parsons, pray? A station on the M. K. & T. R. R., at the junction of the L. L. & G., thirty-five miles southwest of Fort Scott, in Labette County, one hundred and forty miles from Kansas City, the market town of Kansas and the New West.
But to resume, Cowley County is comprised of twenty-two municipal townships, and a population of over ten thousand five hundred souls, if everyone has a soul, which seems doubtful by their act. Seven thousand five hundred of the population is in the Walnut Valley. A road up and down the valley would accommodate two thirds of our present and prospective resident tax payers and build up two prosperous towns where the comforts and conveniences of civilization would center for the benefit of the great farming and producing class of the country as well as the improvement of our species.
All these benefits must be thwarted to gratify a hell engendered spirit of revenge of a few sore head politicians and disappointed office seekers whose principles are rule or ruin. Citizens of Winfield and Cowley County, the day is coming, and is not far distant, when you will curse in your bitter wrath the memory of the men that are now plotting your destruction under the false and delusive pretense of being your friends.
Take down the map of your county, examine it closely, see where its best lands lay, see for yourselves if you are not blinded by local prejudices or actuated by the most vindictive hate to a sister village of your own county, that can in no shape or manner be a rival to your commercial and financial prosperity where the bulk of our population lays. Don't let passion subjugate your judgment, you have the County Seat, the public offices, and a favorable location for a thriving business town.
Without descending to particulars and statistical information on the comparative cost of broad and narrow gauge railroads, we will state the cost per mile for what is termed standard and three feet gauge over the same character of country; the former costing $9,944, the latter $5,951, or in about the proportion of five to nine, a little over half. The cost of equipments of the two roads would be a little more in the proportion of three and a half to four and a half. The cost of standard gauge being $9,944 per mile, and thirty miles through our county, amounts to $298,320, while a three feet gauge would only cost $178,530, leaving a balance of $119,790, near $120,000 for the road alone without equipments or rolling stock, this $120,000 would be dead capital that we would have to pay interest on in the shape of passage and freight, money that the farmers and traders have to pay the railroad, for all freight and passage money is intended as interest on the capital invested. The more that is invested in the road, the more is to be paid by the producer and trader. The buyer and seller in this, as in all business transactions, will invariably look for the consumer to pay the tariff, and the mass of mankind are consumers. Do not then tarnish your good name by such a suicidal course, such a dog in the manger policy.
Abandon your trumped up East & West company, you know that it is a myth, an iguis pat-n-us, a jack-nith o lantern.
Unite with the friends of Cowley County in putting through a proposition that will accommodate the great bulk of our citizens. As I said before, two-thirds of our voters and taxpayers reside in the Walnut Valley. This section of our county, as you all know, is the great wheat and grain producing region. East of the Walnut is more broken and better adapted to stock raising, a species of farming that does not so early need a railroad, but which it will have in due season. . . .
Signed: JAMES CHRISTIAN.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 25, 1877.
The City Council met and organized last Saturday. Wm. Sleeth was appointed Treasurer and I. H. Bonsall City Clerk. No Marshal or Street Commissioner was appointed. The officers are: Mayor, H. H. Kellogg; Police Judge, Jas. Christian; Councilmen: James Benedict, H. P. Farrar, J. I. Mitchell, H. Godehard, and I. H. Bonsall.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 2, 1877.
BRAKE DOWN AND UPSET. On last Friday morning Judge Christian and the editor of this paper started for Tisdale and Howard County in a light spring buggy. After traveling some fifteen miles, the spring of the buggy was broken by a sudden jar, and they were compelled to return for repairs. While returning on the east bank of the Walnut, the wheel slipped somewhat, throwing the weight on the broken spring, which was in front, causing the buggy to instantly capsize. Mr. Christian was thrown a considerable distance, striking the ground on the back of his head and shoulders, but soon recovered himself. The editor went with the buggy and alighted very easy. The horses did not make much of an effort to run, and in a few minutes the buggy was arighted, and they came into town balancing the vehicle by both sitting on the same side. This made the second fall Scott has received on the east bank of the Walnut within the last year, and the second upset Judge Christian has experienced within the past few months.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 2, 1877.
The editor and Judge Christian made a visit to Chautauqua County last week, going by the way of Silverdale, Maple City, Otto, and Cedar Vale to Sedan. They were absent three days.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 2, 1877. Front Page.
Be Sure You're Right, Then Go Ahead.
Citizens and voters of Cowley County, I am a railroad man in favor of a narrow gauge up and down the most densely populated portion of our county: the Walnut Valley, the wheat growing region of our county. But I must confess I was forcibly struck with the remark of a gentleman in the northeastern part of our county a few weeks ago.
"My friend, I have taxes enough to pay now. I sell all I can raise here at home. This county is emphatically a stock raising country; we don't need a railroad. I make more money in raising cattle and hogs than I can in raising wheat to sell. Enough to bread myself, and family is all I want, and my stock can walk to market. I am perhaps the largest taxpayer in my township, but I find no difficulty in getting along without a railroad. The distance to market don't bother me, and I have as much to sell as any of my neighbors. My experience is that the man who has nothing to sell is the furthest from market. My neighbor across the creek is just the man for you to call upon. He has nothing to sell, neither grain nor stock, but he is crazy for a railroad."
These remarks took me back, as they were too true.
I remember, when a boy in my native land, of seeing a tavern sign called "The Four 'Alls.'" It was the picture of four men, each rigged out in the toggery of his respective calling. One had a crown on his head, and under him the words, "The king rules all;" another had a gun on his shoulder, and under him the words, "The soldier fights for all;" the third had a big book in his hand, and under him the words, "The preacher prays for all;" while the fourth fellow was represented as wearing a long-tailed coat and bearing in his hands a bag of money, with under him the words, "The farmer pays for all." Yes, my farmer friends of Cowley County, in this land of civil and religious liberty; in this land of freedom, as well as in monarchical old England, you have the inestimable privilege of "paying for all."
If there is any railroad built through your county by the aid of railroad bonds, you will have it to pay for. Then exercise your prerogative, and say where it shall run to do the greatest good to the greatest number, and also what description of road you want. Don't let a few town lot speculators bulldoze you out of what your sense of right and justice demands. Demand that the road, if built, shall run where it will do the most good to the farmer, the produce raiser for and life sustainer of all.
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
[COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS.]
Arkansas City Traveler, May 9, 1877.
Council met in regular session, at the office of I. H. Bonsall, Monday, May 75h, James Benedict acting Mayor; J. I. Mitchell, H. P. Farrar, Ho. Godehard, I. H. Bonsall, Councilmen.
Judge Christian reported on his trip to Winfield to redeem city lots sold for taxes, but not paying all taxes due, they were not redeemed.
Bill of E. D. Eddy allowed.
Bill of R. C. Haywood, $6.65, referred to Finance Committee.
Petition of L. W. Currier's for dram shop license, containing 125 names, referred to City Clerk, I. H. Bonsall, and City Attorney, Amos Walton.
On motion the Council adjourned to meet Tuesday evening at 7 o'clock.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 9, 1877.
The following parties received certificates at the examination held in Winfield on the fourth and fifth instant.
First Grade: Miss Lena Bartlett, Miss M. E. Saint, Winfield; Mr. W. E. Ketcham, Maple City.
Second Grade: Anna O. Wright, Carrie Dixon, Georgia Christian, Stella Burnett, Arkansas City; Sarah Hollingsworth, Polo; Lucy Bedell, Lazette; Mary Pontius, Winfield; Veva Walton, Oxford; Adelia Eagin, Rock.
[ATTORNEYS IN ATTENDANCE AT DISTRICT COURT.]
Arkansas City Traveler, May 23, 1877.
The following attorneys were in attendance upon the present term of the District Court: Hon. Alfred L. Redden, of Eldorado; Mr. White, Howard City; Judge M. S. Adams, Wichita; Mr. McBryan, Sedan; Hon. C. R. Mitchell, Amos Walton, Judge Christian, E. B. Kager and Col. McMullen, of Arkansas City; and Messrs. Hackney & McDonald, Pryor & Pryor, Jennings & Buckman, Pyburn & Seward, Jas. McDermott, Henry E. Asp, E. S. Torrance, J. E. Allen, L. J. & Linus Webb, D. A. Millington, A. H. Green, W. M. Boyer, J. M. Alexander, of Winfield.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 6, 1877.
M. E. SOCIAL. A social will be given under the auspices of the M. E. Church, at Pearson's Hall, on next Wednesday evening, June 13th, to which all are cordially invited. Ice cream will be served at fifteen cents per dish, and lemonade at five cents a glass, so that it will come within the reach of all. A programme has been arranged for the evening exercises and amusements guaranteed. Anyone who attends and does not speak during the evening will be entitled to a treat. The proceeds will be devoted to paying for the erection of the new church, which we all take pride in seeing completed. Come one, come all, and enjoy a pleasant evening.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 20, 1877.
4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION IN BOLTON. On the fourth of July the citizens of Bolton will have a celebration at Captain Smith's grove and spring about a mile south of the bridge. Judge Christian is to deliver the oration. Amos Walton and other speakers are invited to address the crowd. A good time generally is expected. All are cordially invited to attend, and join in the festivities. Come one, come all, bring your baskets and have a jolly time.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 27, 1877. Front Page.
Communicated.
"Our neighboring village of Freedom was the scene last Wednesday of a remarkable golden weddingCremarkable in the fact that the mother of one of the contracting parties was present. It is rare enough in itself that a couple celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, but rarer still that a parent lives to an age to see a son or a daughter become one of the principals to such a golden wedding and the parent be present on the occasion. Indeed, such a sight might not be seen again in a life time. The parties to the Freedom celebration were Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kelly, and the aged parent who was present on the occasion was Mrs. Black, the mother of Mrs. Kelly, who has passed the Centennial year of her existence."
We take the above from the Pittsburgh Leader of the 10th inst. Of late years in this country quite a stir has been made through the press about silver and golden weddings, and occasionally a diamond wedding, and some remarkable instances of longevity.
But these events in the "Old Country" create no such excitement. I was once present at the christening of a child in the old home of St. Patrick. When the ceremony was over and the feasting commenced, someone suggested the propriety of taking the ages of its progenitors then present, and the length of time the parents had been married. The father and mother had been married 30 years, the grandfather and grandmother 65 years, the great grandfather 83 years, the great grandmother having been dead some years. I have heard the term given to 25, 50, and 75 years of married life, but am at a loss what term to apply to this case of 83 years of married life. Here was an old gentleman 105 years old, who could have celebrated his 83 years of married life. A fact well known in the neighborhood of St. John's Point, Parish of Russglass, county Down, Ireland, 45 years ago.
Another remarkable case of longevity, as well as fecundity, upon this side of the "Herring Pond" came under my own observation shortly after my marriage in 1846. We paid a visit to my wife's grandmother, an old lady then past 90. Quite a number of the relatives sat down to dinner, having assembled to congratulate us upon our union, as well as to pay their respects to old "Grandma," as she was familiarly called. At the table sat the old lady, then past 90 years of age; next to her sat her oldest daughter, a married lady of 72 years; next to this lady was her oldest son, aged fifty years, grandson of the old lady. Beside this gentleman sat his daughter, 28 years old, and at her side was her little son, 6 years old.
"Grandma" could thus tell her grandson to help his grandson, all at the same table: five generations. Her 72 year old daughter was amongst the first babies brought into Kentucky. This venerable lady of some 90 years, accompanied by her husband, came with Daniel Boone and settled at Boonesborough at an early day. In their long march from Virginia, traveling by night and laying by during the day for fear of the Indians, "old Grandma" rode a pony loaded with all their worldly goods while her husband walked alongside with his trusty rifle.
The old lady known as "Grandma" died of old age in the bosom of her family to the fifth generation.
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
[I FOUND THIS ARTICLE MADDENING TO FOLLOW...REWROTE PART OF IT IN ORDER TO MAKE SOME SENSE OF IT...CHRISTIAN REFERRED TO THE DAUGHTER OF "GRANDMA" AS "MRS. W."...WISH HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN THE FULL NAME OF MRS. W. AND FOR THAT MATTER, "GRANDMA."]
[ANOTHER MADDENING FACT: JAMES CHRISTIAN WAS MARRIED IN 1846...HIS LAST CHILD, BORN IN ARKANSAS CITY, APPEARED IN 1877...SEE ONE OF THE COLUMNS IN PAPER...31 YEARS AFTER HE WAS MARRIED!]
Arkansas City Traveler, July 4, 1877.
JUDGE CHRISTIAN's daughter, who has been a missionary to Egypt, spent a few days with her parents this week.
[BOLTON TOWNSHIP CELEBRATES FOURTH OF JULY.]
Arkansas City Traveler, July 11, 1877 - FRONT PAGE.
The Fourth of July in Bolton.
[For the TRAVELER.]
A WOMAN'S VIEW OF IT.
Mr. Editor:
I attended the Fourth of July in Bolton last Wednesday, and took a few notes I want to tell you. I did not go for fun; I did not go for frolic; but for sober, solid information and instruction, and to see the people and things. I saw you there, to begin with, and concluded from appearances that the local department of the paper would be neglected, as you had your hand full, mind full, and from the monstrous basket you towed around, I took it for granted you would soon have a stomach full. An editor is always hungry, they say, and I believe it. But I don't want to write this article entirely about you, for there were others equally as handsome as yourself and lady.
Do not censure me if I am too critical, for you know half a woman lives for is to see and be seen, talk a great deal, and hear much more. Men are slow, stupid beings, capable of talking only one at a time, but we, the fairest of God's creatures, can talk all together.
Isn't it delightful to go to a picnic, sit down under a shady bough, and watch the people, and make comparisons? I had just such a location when I made these notes.
First on the scene was Mr. Skinner, senior. You can assure yourself he would be first if he came at all. Then came Frank Denton, Mr. Parvin, Capt. Hoffmaster, Mr. Steiner, and "Jim," with their amiable wives all neatly dressed. Soon after came what the TRAVELER has dubbed the "young bloods" of Bolton and Creswell.
There was that wild and reckless Will Stewart, who drives as though he was running a passenger coach, followed by modest (?) O. C. Skinner and the constable of your town, with gayly attired ladies.
Soon the dignity of Creswell appeared, with covered carriages and fine horses. Among them Col. McMullen, Dr. Alexander, Rev. Fleming, O. P. Houghton, and last, but not least, his Honor, Judge Christian, and Amos Walton, speakers of the day.
I did like Judge Christian's oration, and was surprised at the ability of the old gentleman and his powers of delivery. Anyone could see it was a speech prepared by hard study, and a great amount of reading. If the ground committee had done their duty and prepared seats, many more would have heard the speech, but for elderly per-sons to stand in a grove without a breath of air stirring is too much for comfort, much less to pay attention to an oration.
Among the audience there was the handsome young widow with money to loan, the belles of Bolton and their adored, the boisterous town roughs, and wives of distinguished citizens, who came alone, leaving their husbands to remain at home to look after the "by-bie." There were good, bad, and indifferent persons among the crowd. At the table also was a sight. On one side, mild, kind, and lovely women could be seen, and nearby the uncouth, voracious individual whose mouth looked as though he had his throat cut, every time he opened it.
There were many strangers I had never seen before, and familiar faces I have not had the pleasure of seeing for some time. One fine appearing, Christian looking gentleman, I learned, was from Illinois, and others I was informed lived across the Arkansas. Understand me when I say across the Arkansas, to mean on the north side, for I am a resident of Bolton township.
But I have scarcely referred to my notes. Rev. McClanahan, a new preacher, began the exercises with prayer. The Declaration was then commendably read by Mr. Parvin, of our side; then the brass band of your place, after a series of toots, and yells for "Charley," "Frank," "Ret," "where's Lyman Herrick?" and "where's Ed. Thompson?" worked up a tune. We supposed "Charley" and "Frank" and "Ret" to be single men, and imagined they might be promenading with someone's sister, but we do not know it. Yes, they worked up a tune finally. I would give you the name of it, if I could, but I could not find anyone who knew it.
After prayer, Dr. Shepard, who was appointed Chairman, introduced Hon. James Christian. His speech lasted about half an hour, and was appreciated by all who heard it. Hon. Amos Walton then spoke in a strong, pleasing tone, after which the gathering began to separate and seek their homes.
This, Mr. Editor, is all I have to say. If at any future time you wish me to express my sentiments, I may be in the mood to favor you. I desire to thank the people of your township for the patriotism they manifested in coming to Bolton township for a Fourth of July Celebration when they couldn't have one at home, and the good wives of the Bolton men who worked to make it a success.
I also want to say that the visit paid us by your most estimable ladies, Mrs. and Miss Revs. Thompson, Mrs. Fleming, Mrs. Shepard, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Sipes, Mrs. McMullen, and a number of others, will be returned, as they added much to the enjoyment of the occasion. I also desire to thank the band boys, for they meant well in their heads, but their hearts, I fear, troubled them. There were a number of young ladies, also, whom I would be gratified to have call on me at any time, and the young boys know they are all cherished and loved by
AUNT MARY.
[COMMUNICATION FROM "C. C. H." - BOLTON TOWNSHIP.]
Arkansas City Traveler, July 11, 1877.
BOLTON TOWNSHIP, July 5th, 1877.
Today finds us in Bolton again, enjoying the luxuries of which all practical grangers have a bountiful supply about harvest time. Harvesting has been going on at a rapid rate during the past two weeks. Many farmers are done cutting wheat, and some have already commenced stacking. Mr. Parmer has cut 200 acres of wheat with one Marsh harvester and has a greater portion of it stacked. Mr. Dave Marcie is nearly done heading his 400 acres. Polk Stevens has been running his harvester day and night during the past week. He says he will get away with 275 acres with one machine.
The wheat crop is light this year, caused by the recent heavy rains. Corn and oats promise a good yield.
We had the pleasure of attending a picnic in Capt. O. C. Smith's grove, on Spring creek, yesterday, the 4th. Owing to the committee being busily engaged, the grove was not very well prepared. Notwithstanding the limited preparations made and the heat in the grove, the participators in the picnic seemed to enjoy themselves finely. The programme for the day was somewhat varied on account of the band boys being unable to get over until noon. The exercises of the day commenced with prayer by Rev. McClanahan. Then came Lieut. Thos. S. Parvin, who read the Declaration of Independence, which was listened to with extraordinary patience, as Mr. Parvin is an elegant reader. Next in order was dinner, which consisted of every variety of goodies, which are too numerous to mention. After dinner we listened to a very interesting, eloquent, and patriotic discourse, delivered by Judge Christian, of Arkansas City. Then came the band boys with a recital of "The Red, White, and Blue," which seemed to cheer all present, even the "old folks." Next in order was a speech from Mr. Amos Walton, who spread the eagle in the most elegant manner, after which lemonade, ice cream, music by the band, etc., until evening, when everybody went home with a gladsome heart.
The citizens of Bolton tender their many thanks to the gentlemen, speakers, and the band for their favors. More anon.
C. C. H.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 11, 1877.
JUDGE CHRISTIAN has been appointed a Justice of the Peace for Creswell Township by Gov. Anthony, and James Huey a Notary Public. Both appointments were well bestowed.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 1, 1877.
We are under obligations to Judge Christian for helping us out during a rush, this week. Mr. Christian is an old newspaper man, and works in harness now as well as he did years ago.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 1, 1877.
All the candidates that come to town seek Judge Christian's office. Whether they are afraid of being brought before him in his official capacity as Police Judge, or want him to help them in the canvass this fall, we cannot say. Judge is a Democrat, but somehow the Republicans court his acquaintance all the same in a fall campaign.
[LETTER FROM JUDGE CHRISTIAN TO AN OLD FRIEND.]
Arkansas City Traveler, August 22, 1877.
Old friendCI am truly pleased to hear from you, and to find that you are still in the land of the living. Your discovery of my whereabouts is somewhat romantic. I hardly supposed any of my old friends would find me out, away here on the border of the Indian Territory, the south line of the State; but it is hard for a man to get out of reach in this country, so that he cannot be found out, if he has done any deviltry (unless he is a Bender). I had lost sight of you entirely, not having been in Missouri since the war, and not much then except passing through.
But I am pleased to hear that yourself, wife, and family are all well as this leaves me and mine.
I am not as fortunate as you are, I have no boysCnever had a boyCnor none married, so that I have not even a son-in-law, nor de facto.
But to business. Doctor, I hardly know what to say, as I am not sufficiently informed of how you are situated or what kind of a location would suit you, etc. Whether you want to make stock raising the principal business or main idea, or only incidental to your practice, all that I can say is that in my judgment Cowley county is by nature and locality, one of the best counties in the State.
The crops are generally good. Wheat has for the past five or six years been the great crop, but for the last two years, it has not proved as abundant as formerly. This season and last has produced the most abundant corn crop. Oats this season have been extraordinarily good, last year they were a failure. But like all new countries, money is very scarce and times dull. Things go very slow, but this is the case in all strictly farming communities. Kansas is no exception to the rule. Our farmers are terribly in debt. This county, as you are doubtless aware, was formed out of a part of what was the OSAGE INDIAN RESERVE, and when opened to settlement, seven years ago, all the poor men, poor devils, and poor farmers in the land flocked in to take claims. The consequence was they had no money to pay for it when the land came into market. They had to borrow of the shylocks, who also smelt the carrion afar off, and came also to loan money at from thirty to sixty percent, per annum interest. This debt has never entirely been removed, although many changes have taken place. Old notes have been renewed, interest paid on it, but still there is the same old debt. Then our people run wild about agricultural implements and machinery. Every new thing that comes along that eases labor and can be bought on credit, they buy. This is another curse by way of indebtedness that hangs over our community, although it will prove a blessing to the great mass of consumers around us, but ruin to the few that are involved in buying.
I send you a little map of the county, so that you can see the location of the various towns, streams, etc., giving you much information that you wanted to know about. I also send you a copy of the TRAVELER, published in our town, that will give you much information. You had better send $1 and take it six months. It is a live paper for a village newspaper, gives you just such information as emigrants desire.
P. S. We are well supplied with M. D.'s. We have the scriptural numberCseven of themCand but little sickness, except the usual concomitant of the Western States, chills and fever. We have no malignant diseases in this locality.
If you think of locating in this part of Kansas, first come and see for yourself. We have no railroad at present nearer than sixty miles, but a good prospect for one from Kansas City, via Emporia, to this place, in the next twelve or eighteen months. The distance is now traversed by stage, dailyCfare $5. This is a fair country to look upon, and as good as it is fair. We have a delightful climate. Good society for a new countryC
much better than usual. People from every State in the Union, with the cream of her Majesty's subjects from Canada.
Our kind regards to all.
Your old friend,
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
There is a reference to Judge Christian being a soldier in the Traveler of Sept 2, 1877.
[COMMUNICATION FROM JAMES CHRISTIAN RE RAILROAD VOTE.]
Arkansas City Traveler, August 29, 1877 - FRONT PAGE.
COMMUNICATED.
Something to Think About.
Citizens of Cowley County, on the 18th of September you will be called upon to accept or reject the proposition to vote $120,000 in county bonds to the Kansas City, Emporia and Southern Narrow-Gauge Railroad.
The great question with Kansas men when asked to undertake any proposition, and a pertinent one it is too: Will it pay? This is the principle that should govern your action in accepting or rejecting the proposition that will be presented to you on the 18th day of September. It is an enterprise that has for its object the noblest aim that can animate patriotic and christian men,
CThe public goodCThe development of our country's resources and prosperity,CThe happiness and comfort of our fellow men.Over six thousand years ago, on the flowery banks of the river Euphrates, in the Old World, the command of Heaven was given, "Be ye fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein." Since that day until this, man has been engaged in developing the powers of earth and her capacity to bring forth abundantly for the comfort and convenience of man. The same power that gave this command, has also said: "I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you shall be for meat." That is, it shall be your staff support and sustenance on the earth.
In sustaining this enterprise, in voting for these bonds, you are not only carrying out the decrees of Heaven, but you are developing the resources and material prosperity of our common country; increasing the comfort and convenience of yourselves and neighbors. In voting for these bonds you are not injuring any other locality, but simply building up your own and your neighbors
= fortunes.Cowley County is a distinct organization and must act through the joint body of her electors as one man.
The proposition submitted to you is a fair and honest one, doing the greatest good to the greatest number.
Our county is 34
2 miles from east to west and 33 miles from north to south.The aggregate wealth of our county is $1,962,078.25. Of that wealth $1,502,868 lays in the three west ranges of townships through which this road is to run, so that no man in either of these three ranges can possibly be more than nine miles from a railroad. About the same proportion of the population of our county lies in these three western ranges of townships, so that if that portion will be most benefitted, it will also have the most to pay. As 4 to 1 of the population and valuation of our county is embraced within these western townships, or in the Walnut valley, how can injustice be done to anyone by voting these bonds?
But, says the prudent, cautious calculator, "Will the benefit accruing to the people of the county by the construction of this road be more than counterbalanced by the outlay?" This is a very proper inquiry and one that should receive due consideration from every man before depositing his vote on the proposition.
To what extent will the grain raiser of the Walnut valley be benefitted by the construction of the Kansas City, Emporia and Southern Railroad?
One source of profit, and the greatest one to the farmer, will be a home market for all his surplus produce, with the cash in his fist, a commodity that he rarely handles now.
The price of the wheat crop will be considerably enhanced by reason of the great reduction of freights which will inevitably follow the construction of this road and the consequent destruction of the oppressive monopoly now enjoyed by the A. T. & S. F. R. R.
The increase of wealth and population that follow all such enterprises will have its effect here as elsewhere; the impetus to business; the advance in value of your present property, all demand that you should not throw away the present golden opportunity. "Strike while the iron's hot!" "Make hay while the sun shines!" Homely adages, but none the less true.
Vote for the bonds and you will have the road with all its advantages. . . .
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
[COMMUNICATION FROM "LITTLE DUTCH" - WINFIELD.]
Arkansas City Traveler, September 5, 1877.
I thought a line from the hub would not be amiss. Court is now in fair running order. Judge, lawyers, clerks, sheriff, and reporters all had a good time on Monday night, drinking the health of C. C. Black, who was admitted to the bar that day, and at night invited others to a much more acceptable bar.
I notice a number of foreign gentlemen present in court this term
CAdams of Wichita, Redden of Eldorado, Christian, Mitchell, and Kager of the Sand Hills, George and Willsey of Sumner, and perhaps others that I did not know. Our own lawyers were out in force, and I believe we have nineteen or twenty of them, and five more admitted this termCCharley Black and Charley Eagin on examination, and O. Coldwell, N. C. Coldwell, and John T. Mackey on certificate. If Cowley is not well regulated, it will not be for the want of lawyers. We have one to every 35 persons in the countyCnot a bad showing.Well, Judge Campbell is shoving things right along. Two horse thieves already provided with a home on the Big Muddy. The Hill and Galliotti case was settled before coming into court, Hill taking the child and Frank the mother
Can equal division of the property. It is said Hill pays $500 for his little joke of false warrantee of the article recommended. Since the settlement, the child has died, leaving all parties disconsolate.A number of jury trials were had, but general satisfaction was not given. Your townsman, lawyer Kager, got scooped by an American citizen of undoubted African descent. I thought Kager in the place of poor dog Tray
Chis associations beat him.The case of Mrs. Renfro against her father-in-law, James Renfro, came out victorious. Juries have a wonderful leaning to young widows. You had better been more generous, James.
Our town is still going ahead. Several new buildings going up: candidates as thick as ever. Shenneman is the best looking man on the track, but Troup wears the best clothes; old Tom Bryan has the most belly and stomach, and is the surest to win; Kinne don't say much, but he has lots of friends, and I should not be astonished if he makes the riffle much easier than last time. A good many are running just for the fun of the thing
Cdon't expect to be nominated, but want to get acquainted in the hope that the lightning might strike them in the future. Our Bill is still slashing around, supporting the hand that furnishes the supplies.LITTLE DUTCH.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 3, 1877.
MARRIED. On Wednesday evening, Sept. 26, 1877, by Rev. Samuel D. Fleming, at the residence of the bride's parents, MR. ARISTUS (A. W.) BERKEY and MISS GEORGIA H. CHRISTIAN, both of this place. Mr. Berkey is well known and respected at this place and in the county, as an enterprising and reliable man, and his bride is the daughter of Hon. James Christian, one of the oldest residents of Kansas. The happy couple are favored with the good wishes of the whole community, and especially by the printer boys, who were made the recipients of a bountiful supply of palatable eatables.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 17, 1877.
Lecture for the Benefit of the Church.
Judge Christian will deliver a lecture in the new Methodist Church, on Friday evening, October 26, on "The Curiosity of Names," the proceeds to go towards finishing the church. Admission 20 cents, or 30 cents a couple. Children 10 cents.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 31, 1877.
In behalf of the Ladies Society, we desire through the columns of your paper to tender our sincere thanks to Judge Christian for his interesting lecture; also Mr. and Mrs. Berkey for their music last Friday evening.
MRS. L. A. ALEXANDER, Pres.
MRS. J. GIBBY, Secretary.
Arkansas City Traveler, November 7, 1877.
The election at this place yesterday passed off very quietly and pleasantly. The votes polled lacked about seventy of being the entire vote of the township. Some little strife was made for the offices of constables and justices of the peace. The following is the vote on township officers.
Trustee. M. R. Leonard, 203.
Treasurer. L. Finley, 119.
Clerk. W. D. Mowry, 197.
Justices: I. H. Bonsall, 166; James Christian, 120; T. McIntire, 107.
Constables: Geo. McIntire, 185; James Morgan, 133; W. J. Gray, 82.
Road Overseers: J. W. Hutchinson --; Capt. Bird, 7.
There were two justices and two constables to elect.
The November 7, 1877, issue of the Traveler listed Linda Christian as one of the high school students with the highest standards.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 5, 1877.
Court Proceedings.
WINFIELD, KANS., Dec. 3, 1877.
Friend Scott:
I thought that a line from the capital would not be unacceptable to your suburban paper. Court is now in full blast, although there is but a light docket, only two criminal cases and 42 civil cases. One-fourth of them are in the hands of your town lawyers
CC. R. Mitchell and James Christian. They are the only lawyers from a distance in attendance so far. The prospects are gloomy for a lively term, as it is now raining with little appearance of clearing off. Our streets are muddy, and travel to and from the courthouse is disagreeable. Very few persons in town from the country, so that altogether things look and feel gloomy. But your corre-spondent feels happy as all Christians should.I send you a list of all the jurors for this term. Williams, the negro who stole Coryell's horse, has been arraigned, and plead guilty; has not been sentenced yet. He seemed the best humored criminal I ever saw. When called up, he looked as smiling as if going to a frolic.
LIST OF JURORS. Wm. Butterfield, Chas. Roseberry, Add Smith, E. Baldwin, J. W. Ledlie,
Lafayette Baldwin, G. W. Bennett, G. B. Green, P. C. Clark, N. E. Newell, R. R. Longshore,
Thos. Hart.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 12, 1877.
The addition to the old Meigs building, now the property of Mr. Tisdale, the proprietor of the stage line, adds very much to the looks of things on that side of the street. When it is painted up completely, this will be one of the neatest store rooms in town. Judge Christian, the agent of Mr. Tisdale, cannot bear to see anything under his charge so slipshod. Hence this improvement.
[THE METHODIST FESTIVAL.]
Arkansas City Traveler, January 2, 1878.
The festival given by the ladies of the Methodist Society, on Christmas Eve, was an occasion long to be remembered by those who attended
Cand it seemed as if "all the world and his wife" were there. The house was uncomfortably crowded with people, old and young, who had come to partake of the bountiful feast prepared for them, and witness old Santa Claus distribute his presents from the immense tree that stood at one end of the room, literally loaded down with handsome silverware for fortunate wives, valuable books for relatives and friends, besides an endless variety of dolls and toys to make glad the hearts of the little ones.Supper was served from early in the evening until everybody was satisfied, when the distribution of presents was in order. Mr. Charles Swarts, in snow-white head dress and an overcoat liberally sprinkled with cotton, personified that mythical friend of the children, Santa Claus, and looked like a first cousin to a Polar bear, fresh from the land of the Esquimaux. It would be useless to attempt an enumeration of the presents. Nearly every man, woman, and child received something of greater or less value, to remind them that
"Christmas comes but once a year;
When it comes, it brings good cheer."
The fancy table was well supplied with ornamental articles, which the fair ladies succeeded in selling to the bachelors and young men as particularly useful to persons situated as they were. The gentlemen in question had no other course than to hand over the cash and pocket the article, but just how an old woman hater was to be benefited by paying fifty cents for an embryo apron made to pin around the neck, is a problem that remains unsolved.
On this table was a veteran law book, 131 years old, contributed by Judge Christian for exhibition.
Over the table hung a beautiful chromo, donated by Mr. E. D. Eddy, and to be given to the prettiest baby in the room. This question was decided by voting (ten cents for each and every vote), with the privilege of repeating ad infinitum), and resulted in favor of Claire, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Mitchell.
In the contest for the quilt, which was to be given to the handsomest old lady in the room (another dime affair), Mrs. Alexander came out victorious.
The charade was acted very creditably, but the noise of the crowd was so great that few could hear enough to enable them to guess the word. Miss Decou's surprising efforts at harmony, however, were heard above the multitude.
We understand the Society cleared about eighty dollars altogether, which will be applied to finishing their new building.
[AD: CHOICE LANDS FOR SALE IN COWLEY AND SUMNER COUNTIES.]
Arkansas City Traveler, January 9, 1878.
CHOICE LANDS FOR SALE
-IN-
COWLEY AND SUMNER
COUNTIES.
One-fifth of the purchase money required as FIRST PAYMENT,
Balance on FIVE YEARS' TIME.
Below will be found a partial list of our lands and town lots, both improved and unimproved, we have for sale. This property is situated in the most desirable portion of Kansas, the great Arkansas River Valley, and adjacent thereto. The climate in this locality is unsurpassed, and the land is as fertile as any in the West. This portion of Kansas is keeping pace with the civilization of the age in building Railroads, Churches, and School Houses. Come here if you want a very desirable home for a very small amount of money.
West
2 of section 36, township 34, south of range 3 east; 230 acres, joining Arkansas City; all bottom land; plenty of water and timber; 100 acres in cultivation; very desirable tract of land; price $3,000. As soon as a railroad reaches here, this place will be worth double this sum.S 1/23 of SE 1/4 sec. 5, tp 34, S R 3 D. This tract is in the finest portion of the Arkansas Valley. Known as the Sweet land; price $600.
E
2 of NW 1/4 sec 5, tp 34, S R 4 E. Upland; known as the Waldo tract. Price $300.NW 1/4 sec 31, tp 33, S R 3 E. Very fine bottom land; plenty of timber and water; price $4 per acre; known as the McLane tract.
SE 1/4 sec 22, tp 34, S R 4 E. Seventy acres in cultivation; good house, plenty of water, price $1,300; 3-1/2 miles east of Arkansas City; known as the Kerr place.
E
2 of SW 1/4 sec 17, tp 35, S R 4 E. All in cultivation; on State line; a most excellent piece of land for stock: $700.SE 1/4 sec 7, tp 34, S R 3 E. This is a most excellent tract of land near Salt City, in an excellent neighborhood; price $1,200. Known as the Sweet farm.
Lot 1 and 2, and S
2 of NW 1/4 sec 13, tp 35, S R 4 W, in Sumner county, Kas. Known as the James W. DeHoney tract; price $400.NE 1/4 sec 9, tp 35, S R 2 W, in Sumner county, Kansas; known as the James R. Prange farm; price $400.
Lot 2 block 80; lot 25, block 132; lots 5 and 6, block 17; lots 9 and 10, block 150; and 5 acres of timber land on Arkansas river, near Max Fawcett's farm.
NW 1/4 sec 11, tp 35, S R 3 E. Known as the Buckwalter farm; price $1,500.
NE 1/4 sec 13, tp 34, S R 4 E; 80 acres in cultivation; price $800. Known as the W. G. Gooch tract.
NE 1/4 sec 33, tp 33, S R 5 E. Known as the Park farm; price $300.
E
2 of NE 1/4 sec 7, and W 2 of NW 1/4 sec 8, tp 35, S R 4 E. Known as the Edwards land; price $600.NW 1/4 sec 27, tp 34, S R 4 E. Thirty acres in cultivation; price $1,200. Inquire of Rev. David Thompson.
Inquire of J. C. McMullen or Jas. Christian, Arkansas City, Kansas.
NOTE: I DID NOT LIST ALL THE PROPERTIES IN AD!
[BUSINESS NOTICES.]
TRAVELER, JANUARY 9, 1878.
[JAMES CHRISTIAN - FIRST MASTER OF THE FOURTH MASONIC LODGE]
Arkansas City Traveler, January 23, 1878.
JOHN W. SMITH, who organized and was Master of the first lodge of the Free Masons, in Kansas, died at Keokuk, Iowa, recently, aged eighty-nine years. He had been a Free Mason sixty years, and the lodge he organized in Kansas was at White Cloud in 1854 Ex.
Judge James Christian, of this place, was the first Master of the fourth lodge organized in the Territory of Kansas, and helped to organize the first Grand Lodge in Kansas
Chaving the second dispensation issued by the Grand Master of Missouri to organize a lodge in Kansas; but owing to political troubles, his lodge was numbered six on the list, it being located in that abolition den, Lawrence. Even Masons then were not disposed to do justice to locality. But times have changed since then. In looking over some old Grand Lodge reports, we noticed the name of Brother James Christian as Master of Sharpsburg Lodge No.11, in Kentucky, in 1849, and of Prairie Lodge No. 90, in Missouri, 1850.
[TRIAL: BILSON AND RIDENOUR.]
Arkansas City Traveler, February 20, 1878.
THE TRIAL OF BILSON AND RIDENOUR was held at Pearson's Hall last Wednesday afternoon and night. County Attorney McDermott prosecuted the case, with C. R. Mitchell defending Ridenour, and Amos Walton defending Bilson. Judge Christian and I. H. Bonsall were the judges. Bilson was bound over to appear at the next term of the District Court, in the sum of $600, and failing to obtain bail, was committed to jail. The evidence was not sufficient to convict Ridenour, and he was discharged. In searching Bilson's property, in Mrs. Williams' boarding house, some goods were found that had been taken from Charley Balcom's house some time ago, also some articles that were taken from A. K. Melton's trunk.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 13, 1878.
PARKER's pony ran off with Judge Christian's sled Monday. The last seen of the pony, he was going towards Norton's, getting up a pretty good motion.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 27, 1878.
On complaint of Wm. Gray, city marshal, L. H. Gardner was arraigned before Judge Christian on Monday last for selling intoxicating liquors without a license. Amos Walton acted as attorney for the city, and C. R. Mitchell for the defendant. After hearing the testimony, the evidence failed to sustain the charge, and Mr. Gardner was discharged. The cost will have to be paid by the city. It is the opinion of the Police Judge that no one can sell liquor without a license under the city ordinance, for medical purposes or otherwise. This will compel all drug stores to take out a license, unless the ordinance is amended.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 27, 1878.
Stolen Horses Recovered.
Friday afternoon two well appearing young men rode into town horseback, and stopped for the night. In the morning they attempted to sell their horses very cheap, claiming they were from Sumner county and needed money. In the meantime a postal card was received stating that two horses, a sorrel horse with white face and a bay horse, had been stolen from Thayer, Kansas, about 100 miles distant. One of the horses had been purchased in the meantime by Mr. Riddle, the dry goods merchant, who traded a suit of clothes for it. The postal card was directed to the City Marshal, and was handed to Wm. Gray, who, with constable Morgan, examined the property, found the description almost exact, and arrested the two men in the saloon without resistance. They had a preliminary trial before Judge Christian and were bound over to appear at the next term of the District Court to be held in May. In default of bail, they were committed to jail. The countenances of the two were not of the best, and their demeanor before the Justice's court was such as to make anyone believe they were guilty, as they declined to give their names or answer any questions. Before taking them to jail, Mr. Riddle recovered the clothes he had traded them, but is out the $4 in cash he gave as booty.
[ARTICLE BY JAMES CHRISTIAN RE KANSAS HISTORY.]
TRAVELER, APRIL 3, 1878.
[For the Traveler.]
A Scrap of Kansas History.
FRIEND SCOTT: As the Historical Society of Kansas seems desirous of scraps of the unwritten history of Kansas, to illustrate the lives and acts of its early settlers, I propose to give through your paper a little light on one of the saddest events that ever occurred in the early days of Kansas settlement.
I mean the death of Gaius Jenkins at the hands of James H. Lane, familiarly known as "Jim" Lane. The circumstances of the killing, the supposed causes that led to the terrible calamity, the trial of Lane before Justice Ladd, and all the facts connected with it, were published in the papers of that day, so that a republication of these facts would throw no new light on the subject. But as nearly all the principal actors in the drama are now in their graves, I now propose to give a little scrap of history
Ca link in the chain of causes that produced thatcatastrophe
Cthat came under my own observation, and of which I had personal cognizance at the time.Those familiar with the early events in Lawrence will remember that shortly after Col. Lane settled in that place, in the spring of 1855, one of his children died and was buried on his claim, a short distance southwest of the old "log house" he then lived in. Around the little grave was a neat paling fence.
In the fall of that year the "Kansas troubles" commenced. Col. Lane was, as all will remember, absent much of the time during that winter and the following year of 1856, and his family, with the exception of little Jennie, was then in Indiana. During the troubles, and while Lane was absent pleading the cause of the Free-State party, Jenkins, being a settler on the same claim, took forcible possession of Lane's log house, and plowed up and cultivated the land that Lane had broken up, and on which his child was buried.
In 1857, on the return of Lane and family, all traces of the grave were gone, having been plowed over and cultivated the previous year, and the fence removed so that not the faintest trace of where the grave was could be found.
Lane and myself spent several days hunting and digging about where we supposed the grave was located, and both came to the conclusion that the body had been dug up, as no trace of the coffin could be found or any part of the paling fence. When we concluded it must have been raised by someone, Lane instantly laid it to Jenkins, his enemy and claim contestant. I shall never forget the expression of his face as, with compressed lips, he exclaimed:
"Such a G_d d_____d ghoul is not fit to live! If I was only certain that he dug up my child out of revenge on me, I would kill him at first sight."
The tears started in his eyes. I tried to calm him by telling him we might be mistaken in the exact distance from the house
Cthat as the ground had been plowed over, and no mound perceivable, the body might still be there."Yes," said he, "but why did the d____d brute tear the paling away, and plow over the grave so that it could never be found?"
This was a conundrum that I could not answer, but had to admit it was a most beastly and inhuman act. The remembrance of that child's grave still rankled in his breast against Jenkins until the fatal encounter in 1858, when Jenkins was slain.
"General" Lane, until the day of his death, believed that Jenkins dug up the child and threw it away. Whether he was guilty or not, God only knows, but these are the facts as I saw and heard them. Lane, with all his faults, was a loving and an affectionate father, passionately fond of his children.
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 3, 1878.
The election of city officers took place last Monday with the following result.
MAYOR: JAMES BENEDICT, 61; W. M. SLEETH, 37.
COUNCILMEN: J. T. SHEPARD, 63; WM. SPEERS, 59; THOS. BERRY, 63; C. R. SIPES, 58; I. H. BONSALL, 61; S. P. CHANNELL, 40; A. A. NEWMAN, 37; H. P. FARRAR, 37; E. D. EDDY, 37; T. H. McLAUGHLIN, 40.
POLICE JUDGE: JAMES CHRISTIAN, 84; TIMOTHY McINTIRE, 12.
Total number of votes cast: 98.
It is generally supposed that the officers elected will favor granting a saloon license on a proper petition.
[LETTER
CJAMES CHRISTIAN TO LAWRENCE STANDARD REPRINTED.]Arkansas City Traveler, April 17, 1878.
The Great Valley.
ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS, March 28, 1878.
[From the Lawrence Standard.]
ED. STANDARD: In the past 48 hours we have had copious showers. The ground is now soaking wet, and it is pouring down rain. This insures our wheat crop, unless some unfore-seen event happens to injure or destroy our prospects. Our wheat crop never looked better at this season of the year. In many places it is two feet high, much of it jointing. But the oldest inhabitant never heard, saw, or dreamed of such a season as this. Our peach trees are nearly all out of bloom, and the leaves are out quite green in the woods; some trees, as the maples, are almost in full leaf. The prairies are quite green
Cas much so as I have seen them in May. Our farmers are preparing for harvest already, selecting their reapers, harvesters, and headers. This season nearly all the harvesters are supplied with self-binders. In a few years, if our agricultural machinists keep on inventing, our farmers will have nothing to do but oversee and give instructions, ring a little bell, and the horses will hitch up themselves and go to work, plow and sow, reap and mow, and haul the grain to market.Our implement dealers have the sidewalks encumbered with plows of all descriptions
Cbreakers, stirrers, sulky, and gang plows of all kinds, patterns, patents, and descriptions, besides a lot of implements that I don't know the use of.
With such machinery skillfully handled in our productive soil, with seasonable weather, who can contemplate the amount of produce that Cowley county might raise and export? Oh, if we only had an outlet down the Arkansas river to New Orleans direct, instead of going 1,100 miles around by way of Kansas City and St. Louis to get there! It is exactly the same distance from this place to Fort Smith, Arkansas, as it is to Kansas City, Missouri, and precisely the same distance to Napoleon, at the mouth of the Arkansas, that it is to St. Louis. At Napoleon we are only 615 miles above New Orleans
C48 hours by steamerCwhile St. Louis is 1,240 miles, usually six days by steamer.With the Arkansas River open for navigation from this place or Wichita to the mouth, there need be no famine in China, India, or elsewhere. The fertile valley of the Arkansas, like the Nile of old, would be the granary of the world. Its mild and healthful climate, rich and productive soil, must soon attract the attention of emigrants to its mines of hidden wealth. If our Government would spend one-fifth the amount in the cleaning and improving of our noble river that she does on some eastern harbor or ocean project, our most sanguine hopes would be more than realized, and it would pay the world at large in getting cheap food for the starving millions.
We want no protection from the Government for our labor. All we ask is a cheap outlet to the sea, the highway of nations, down to the Father of Waters. Broad or narrow gauge railroad bonds may, like physic, be thrown to the dogs.
I see your people and Kansas City are on the right track
Cthe agitation of river navigation and improvement. It is the poor man's best hold. No pooling or combination in that. The mud scow and the floating palace have the same rights there. It is open to all, like the king's highwayCthe rich man's coach or the tinker's cart. Keep the ball rolling. Hurrah for Eads and river navigation.JAMES CHRISTIAN.
[MORE PERSONALS: TRAVELER, APRIL 24, 1878.]
GOODS uncalled for at the Express office in Arkansas City. Parties will please call and get them.
JAMES CHRISTIAN, Agent.
S. P. Channell, 3 packages.
Mansor Rexford, 1 package.
Ellen M. Finney, 1 box.
Thomas Brown, 1 box.
F. Sommers, 1 box.
Benedict Bros., 1 package.
James Root, 1 seine.
Ellen Bank, 1 trunk.
A. Wilson, 1 package.
J. A. Loomis, 1 package.
[MORE BUSINESS NOTICES/ADS: TRAVELER, APRIL 24, 1878.]
For Sale at a Bargain.
230 acres of land joining the town site, 80 acres improved, 70 acres of timber, and a stone house in town with 4 lots; one of the best corn farms in the county, all for $2,500. Inquire of Judge Christian, Arkansas City, or at the Citizens' Bank, Winfield. Also 40 acres of growing wheat on this tract, price $3.00 per acre.
J. C. McMULLEN.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 5, 1878.
YANKED UP. Two very smart little cowboys from Texas, by the name of Graves and Freeman, shipped too much tangle-foot aboard last Monday evening, and with carbines strapped on their backs, rode up and down the street inquiring for "that G__d d____d city marshal." Morgan stepped up to them, pulled one of them off, ordered the other one pulled off, and they followed him to the Police Court with about as much nerve as a sheep, doubtless satisfied in finding him. They were afterwards "found" by Judge Christian to the tune of eight dollars each. Don't try it again, boys. Carbines behind a man don't scare anybody up here.
[BUSINESS NOTICE: JAMES CHRISTIAN.]
Arkansas City Traveler, June 5, 1878.
Notice to Trespassers and Wood Thieves.
I have been duly appointed agent of Michael Harkins for the sale and care of the "Gallert Island," and that I will prosecute to the extent of the law, all trespassers found on said land cutting or destroying the timber, or hauling off down timber without my authority.
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 3, 1878.
A Mr. Osborn was up before his honor, Judge Christian, and deposited $5.00 for the privilege of filling his hide with Patterson's forty-rod corn juice.
[JAMES CHRISTIAN TELLS "MURDOCK" ABOUT AUNT SALLY.]
Arkansas City Traveler, July 10, 1878.
A STEAMBOAT FROM LITTLE ROCK.
Arrives at Arkansas City.
A Spicy Letter from the Hon. James Christian,
Who Tells All About It.
ARKANSAS CITY, June 30, 1878.
FRIEND MURDOCK: The steamer "Aunt Sally," from Little Rock, arrived this morning. Our town is mad with excitement. Men, women, and children, some on foot, some on horseback, others in buggies and wagons, rushed "pell mell" for Harmon's Ford on the Walnut, to witness a sight that our people have thought of, dreamed of, and prayed for for the last six or seven years: a real, living, breathing steamboat; as the children sometimes say, "a sure enough steamboat."
There she was, puffing and blowing like a thing of life. Some two hundred people rushed on board and examined her all over, from deck to Texas
Ccabin, engine, boiler, water wheelCall were scrutinized. They were in her and all over her.Steam being up, the captain invited all hands to a ride up the Walnut as far as Newman's mill and back. The bank was lined with people and the yells and cheers of those on deck and those on shore made the welkin ring. It was hip!
Crip!Chuzzah!Cone after another. A general good time was had.In the afternoon three hundred persons went aboard by invitation, for a ride down the river. Our cornet band did their best tooting on the occasion. Everything was hilarity and joy.
Little preaching was heard in Arkansas City today, you may depend. "Aunt Sally" was in everybody's mouth.
She will stay until after the 4th, and will try to get up and see Wichita, if possible. The boat is owned by Captains Burke and Lewis, of Little Rock; is 85 feet long, 18 feet wide, and draws 14 inches light, and about two feet when fully loaded; carries 40 tons; made the run from Ft. Smith to this place in six days; met with no difficulty or obstructions on the way; the pilot thinks the river even better above than below Ft. Smith.
At this stage of water a railroad is nowhere alongside of a steamboat. Hurrah for the navigation of the Arkansas! It is no longer a matter of speculation, but is now a fixed fact
Ca reality. The "Aunt Sally," the pioneer steamer of this great Southwestern river, has proved it.JAMES CHRISTIAN.
[A MILKING MACHINE: JUDGE CHRISTIAN.]
Arkansas City Traveler, July 24, 1878.
A Milking Machine.
Arkansas City is still in the lead. Some few evenings ago we noticed quite a large crowd in front of our office, and bent upon seeing what was going on, we rushed to the scene of the excitement, and soon discovered the cause
Crather, a cow and Judge Christian with his milking machine in full operation, making the lacteal fluid pour a continuous stream into the pail, and completely draining the cow's udder in a few minutes.This is a very simple apparatus, though very ingenious, consisting of four little silver tubes about two inches long, closed at one end, but open at the other, with a small gum tube some eight inches long fastened to each of them. The end that is inserted into the teat has three small holes on each side, into which the milk flows, thence through the rubber tubes into the pail. All four of these rubber tubes are so fastened together that the milk from all the teats flows in one continuous stream into the pail.
It is an English invention, manufactured at Sheffield, and sold by an agent in this county: price $5. It looks like a big price for so small an article, but Judge Christian says he would not take double what it cost and do without one, as a child of eight or ten years can milk fifty cows in one evening by the aid of this invention, and experience no fatigue.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 21, 1878.
The following gentlemen were elected delegates and alternates to the Democratic Convention to be held at Winfield, August 24th, 1878. Delegates: W. Green, Noah Kimmell, Pat Somers, Judge Christian, T. McIntire, and S. B. Adams. Alternates: Amos Walton, John Gooch, E. M. Godfrey, J. Holloway, J. W. Hutchinson, and J. P. Eckles.
[RAILROAD MEETING WITH SANTA FE: COMMITTEE REPORTS.]
Arkansas City Traveler, September 4, 1878.
To the People of Cowley County.
The Committee appointed in this city at a railroad meeting, held on the 10th of June, 1878, to conduct all the correspondence with the president of the A., T. & S. F. Co., in relation to the extension of a branch road through this county, in observance to their instructions respectfully submit the following report.
Under date of Aug. 20th, the President of the Santa Fe Co. writes us that his company are now engaged in negotiations with the people of Sedgwick county for an extension of that branch down the Arkansas Valley to this point, and thence to the southern boundary of this county via Arkansas City. The Santa Fe Co. also contemplate at no distant day to form a connection with the Fort Smith and Little Rock Co., and thus give us a southern connection. If the pending negotiations with Sedgwick county fail, then the Santa Fe Co. propose to extend the El Dorado branch of their road down the Walnut Valley, and on South as far as above indicated. In either event the people of this county will be benefited by the extensions. We must bear in mind, however, that our present efforts depend largely upon the success of President Nickerson's negotiations with the people of Sedgwick or Butler counties, and if they should obstinately refuse to co-operate and furnish the requisite aid, our failure to secure a branch road can in no wise be attributed to the disinclination of the Santa Fe Co. to help us.
President Nickerson is of the opinion that if his present efforts are crowned with success, he will be able to complete the road to this point during the ensuing year! Nevertheless, he calls our attention to some obstacles which may interpose, which he can neither foresee nor control. Among these are "strikes," stringency of the money markets, and the difficulty of obtaining "ties."
We felt authorized to assure President Nickerson that our people would certain co-operate with his company whether the extension came from Wichita or El Dorado, that you would subscribe to the extent of $4,000 per mile for each mile of completed road, and as to time, interest on bonds, and all matters of mere detail, that you would deal with a liberal and considerate spirit.
We deem it not improper to add that the Santa Fe Co. is now building a western extension to the Rio Grande, at or near Albuquerque; and so soon as the Southern Pacific is extended east from Tunice, they propose to form a junction, and thus give to the people of Kansas an outlet to the Pacific and the rapidly developing great west for their success.
The most casual observer, therefore, cannot fail to realize that if the national objects of the Santa Fe Co. can be carried out, the people of this county, by a subscription to one road, will secure three outlets, East, West, and South.
Trusting that our action thus far may meet your approbation, we respectfully suggest that each of the township trustees, and other representative men of the county will meet in this city on Thursday, the 5th of September, 1878, and take such further action as may be deemed requisite.
COMMITTEE: J. B. HOLMES, JAS. CHRISTIAN, J. B. LYNN, A. A. JACKSON, C. M. WOOD, C. COLDWELL.
[RAILROAD VERSUS STEAMBOAT: ARTICLE BY JAMES CHRISTIAN.]
Arkansas City Traveler, October 2, 1878.
Railroad versus Steamboat.
Almost every paper that you pick up has something to say on the dull times, the finances, and what will bring about a change for the better.
Almost every locality has its local hobby, to better the condition of the country, and some localities have one advantage and some another.
But let us examine our own selves. Let us view the situation of our own home, Arkansas City and southern Cowley. What are our own wants, and under what disadvantages do we labor? Have we not the best county of land in the State? Have we not as mild and salubrious a climate as any in the United States? Have not our farms produced the most enormous crops of wheat, oats, corn, and vegetables for the past few years? Is forty to fifty bushels of oats to the acre not satisfactory to the farmer? Is twenty to forty bushels of wheat to the acre not sufficient? Is fifty, seventy-five, and one hundred bushels of corn to the acre not enough to compensate for the labor expended? Is it not a fact at this time that our land fairly groans with the weight of produce on hand waiting a purchaser or an outlet to market?
Situated as we are on the southern line of the State on the banks of the Arkansas River, right reason and common sense would dictate that our best hold is down the river by some means, either by flatboat, steamboat, or both combined.
The want of transportation is wasting the abundance of food for the people, keeping our farmers poor with thousands of bushels of grain on hand, while others at a distance are starving for the grain which is wasting on our hands for want of means to get it to market.
It would seem like a work of superogation in this enlightened age to undertake to convince anyone of the cheapness of water transportation over railroad transportation, but we will give one example that must convince the most stupid and pigheaded of its truth.
The British Commercial Reports give the case, showing actual shipments at paying freight rates of one-half million tons per mile.
British Commercial Report No. 10 for 1875, under the title of "Proposed Inland System of Navigation," says:
"As to relative costs of transport by water and railways, an instance is given of a case in point. A Cincinnati steamer with her tows laden with coal from Pittsburgh, was passing down the Ohio River, bound to Orleans, distant from Pittsburgh about 2,000 miles. The cargo consisted of 336,000 bushels of coal weighing 13,440 tons. This coal was being transported to New Orleans at 5 cents per 100. At this very moderate rate the down trip brought to the boat and barges $13,440, considered a remunerative trip by the owners. Now, to have carried such a freight by rail would have demanded a force of fifty trains, or 1,344 cars, with 10 tons each. At $2.00 a car, with 10 tons freight, to be carried 2,000 [which is even lower transportation than can be profitable on the railroads], this cargo would have amounted to $268,000, making a difference of more than $250,000 on the transportation of the cargo by one cheap steamboat and her barges.
Cost by rail . . . . $268,000
Cost by water . . . 13,440
Gain by water: $254,520
Now, such being the case, what is the duty of the farmers of southern Cowley, Sumner, and Chautauqua counties but to bend all their energies, concentrate all their means to the establishing of a line of boats on our river that will afford us a means of getting all our surplus produce, of whatever description, to market. It is every man's interest! It is every man's duty to contribute what he can towards such an object. Almost an existence depends on it. The price of farm products rise or fall in proportion to the accessibility to a market. Thus corn in Cowley County today is only worth from 12 to 15 cents per bushel, while on the Mississippi River, it is worth from 55 to 65 cents a bushel. Wheat is a drug at home here at 40 cents, while on the Mississippi it is worth 90 cents to $1.25 per bushel. Do you ask the cause? I answer high railroad freights. But, says the farmer, what can I do toward reduction of freights? We cannot build steamboats. No, but you can contribute your quota to help those who are willing to put their means into a boat as an experiment to test the feasibility of river navigation.
Two of your neighbors, Messrs. Seymour & McClaskey, are now building and have on the "ways" a boat 82 feet long and 18 feet wide, built in a neat and substantial manner by a competent boat builder. The material used is good sound white oak lumber, sawed at their own mill. The bottom, sides, ribs, etc., are to be decked with pine, and equipped with a good 20 horsepower engine and boiler temporarily until she can be got to where a more powerful engine and boiler can be procured. These men mean business, they are your neighbors, and have no greater interest in the prosperity of the county than you have, and no more means to spend, yet they are willing to risk their all
Cyou ought to be willing to risk something to help them.A little from everyone would help these men, and encourage them in their noble enterprise. Will you do it? I doubt not but that you will come up like men with your little 5 or 10 bushels of wheat, or the cash if you prefer it. It is money well spent. It will be like bread cast upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days a rich harvest of good.
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
[NOTICE BY JAMES CHRISTIAN: FOR J. W. FRENCH.]
Arkansas City Traveler, October 31, 1878.
Fair Warning Notice to All.
I have been appointed agent of J. W. French for the protection of his land, and will prosecute to the utmost extent of the law all persons found trespassing on said land, either cutting down timber, poles, or sapling, or hauling away timber, wood; laying or being on said land (that is, the land formerly owned by J. C. McMullen).
JAMES CHRISTIAN, for J. W. French.
Winfield Courier, March 27, 1879.
We would call special attention to the legal card of James Christian. Mr. Christian is a Kansan of the times that "tried men's souls" and is well known throughout the state as a talented attorney and orator.
CARD:
JAMES CHRISTIAN,
ATTORNEY AND COUNSELOR AT LAW, Arkansas City, Cowley County, Kansas, Judge of the Police Court. Justice of the Peace, Notary Public, and Land Agent. Also, Agent for the "Home Insurance" Company of New York, and Phoenix of Hartford, Conn. Will attend promptly to all business in his line. Oldest practicing lawyer in Kansas. Charges, moderate.
[JIMMY CHRISTIAN - ATTORNEY FOR KEOKUK, CHIEF OF SAC AND FOX.]
Arkansas City Traveler, May 28, 1879.
THE RIGHTS OF INDIANS.
The decision at Omaha, that the Indians have the same right to go where they please as whites, brings to mind a similar decision by the Supreme Court of Kansas, some ten years ago.
Keokuk, a Chief of the Sac and Fox tribe, wanted to go to Washington to see his "Great Father." The Indian Agent said Keokuk should not go because there was no appropriation to pay his expenses. Keokuk said he would pay his own expenses and started, and got to Lawrence, where the Agent had him arrested and brought before a U. S. Commissioner who put him in jail, as Jimmy Christian, his attorney said, "with thieves, robbers, and other vile characters." After a few days he was discharged under a habeas writ. He brought suit in the District Court for false imprisonment. He got a judgment against the Agent, and the case was taken to the Supreme Court of Kansas. Judge Kingman, in rendering a decision sustaining the judgment of the court below, said he could find no law to make it an offense for an Indian to go to Washington if he wanted to and paid his own bills.
He said that under no law, human or Divine, could he be subject to arrest and imprisonment by anyone. The opinion concluded by saying: "His rights are regulated by law for redress, it is not in the power of any tribunal to say you are an Indian and your rights rest in the arbitrary decision of executive officers, and not in the law." The case is reported fully in the 6:h Kansas reports, page 94. Commonwealth.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 2, 1879.
Greased Pole Exhibition.
Mr. Editor, I hope that the greased pole exhibition will be left out of the programme on the 4th, as no good can result from it, but possibly harm. A few years ago at Lawrence an exhibition of that kind was had, which resulted in the death of two promising and ambitious little fellows, and the lasting injury of two or three others. The winner of the prize died within 24 hours, and the most successful competitor within three days, by overexertion in trying to climb, encouraged by the cheers of the thoughtless crowd that was urging them to their own destruction and loss of health. The tears and cry of the father of one of the boys who related to me the cause of his son's death, I can never forget. Not being present, he could not prevent it. His boy came home, went to bed, but never got up. He lingered three days, then died. The blood almost burst from his face through the skin. I hope it will not be permitted to go on.
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 7, 1879.
The Arkansas City Democrat, of last week, contains the following personal:
"Judge Christian is Express and Stage Agent, is an old stand-by, and has stood by and seen many things that we now read about: in the early history of Kansas, has taken by the hand each of the 17 Governors of Kansas; knew intimately all the leading spirits that figured in Kansas trouble and early history; is now the oldest member of the Supreme Court of Kansas; was admitted the first day that the Supreme Court was organized, in July, 1865; was the first County Clerk and Register of Deeds in Douglas County, also Clerk of the Probate Court at its organization; served nearly four years in the late unpleasantness as Captain and Commissary of subsistence under a commission of Abraham Lincoln; was afterwards appointed and commissioned United States Attorney for Dacotah Territory by President Johnson, but declined the appointment on account of the climate, "preferring Southern Kansas without a commission, to Decotah with one."
Arkansas City Traveler, September 17, 1879.
Judge Christian and Amos Walton are at Lawrence, attending the Old Settlers' meeting.
[Note: Author not given. Believe, however, it was Judge Christian. MAW]
Arkansas City Traveler, September 24, 1879.
[EDITORIAL PAGE.]
Our Quarter-Century Celebration.
It seems but right that a few words should be devoted this week to a celebration of the building of an empire in the short space of twenty-five years, to the growth of a State that has outstripped even prophecy in the grand development of material wealth and population, which has sent Kansas forward like a boom to the front ranks with her sister States. And it was well that on the morning of her twenty-fifth anniversary, the booming of a cannon should bring together the remnants of that little band, who, through the days of fiery trial, laid the foundation for the grand structure over which they were to rejoice in the two days following.
It was first in order to install Charles Robinson, first free state governor, as president, and then a long list of vice-presidents
Cevery name a reminiscence of early times. But stop, till we say it done one good to see an old white-haired fellow rush across the grounds and make a jump for the hand of a comrade whom he had not seen for all the years since they had struggled together in 1854 and 1855: AHow are you? Where do you live? How many folks you got?,@ etc. Reunion; yes, it was here.Then comes Governor Robinson's introduction, strong, solid, and good
Cmaking them rejoice that much had been accomplished and much was promising for the future.Then comes Mr. Forney, a grand old man, resembling Mr. Greeley in appearance, and much more in action, independent of all parties. When Kansas needed him most, he gave us history of the past truth, which we needed to know, and promise for the future which we hope to realize. The grand old hero looked out over that vast audience as though he had a right to be a part of them, and he had.
Then comes an old man bent and gray, but with fire in his eyes yet, and the introductory says Julian of Indiana, and the whole of that vast audience did homage to the man whose whole life has been devoted to the cause in which the "Kansas Struggle" furnished the solution. We cannot particularize.
Gov. St. John compared our State as between 1856 and today in a rousing speech; Sidney Clarke paid a fine tribute to the grim chieftain, but Sidney could not forget the present animosity sufficiently to do justice to the living as well as the dead; he will learn more as he grows older.
Gov. Crawford read a glowing tribute to the man he introduced, but soared too high; we thought he had a broken wing. Honest, old John Speer hovered around, introducing in a homely phrase, but making everybody feel that it was good to be there.
The music was simply grand
Cworthy of special note, a piece, a small piece of the band that played a funeral march for the first dead martyr of Kansas. Then came a Kansas singerCa new settlerCa young lady raised on Kansas soil, whose fame will reach farther than the West.Then came Edward Everett Hale, fresh from the "classic city," to tell of the organization and work that founded the city of Lawrence, and staid with the State until the banner of freedom floated from border to border. To show the state of feeling both with the old and the new, every mention of the first Kansas Senator, now dead, called for a response from the audience. To show the complete interchange of feeling and the complete burial of all former antagonism, almost every speaker connected the name of Jas. H. Lane with that of Charles Robinson.
Then came the barbecue. That ox was roasted whole, and wasn't very good either, but then it was a communion table at which every old Kansan felt like taking a "chaw."
It has come and gone
Ca reunion which Kansas can never know again. The twenty thousand people have melted away to their homes and old settlers have taken each other by the hand, most of whom will never celebrate another; but for years, as the scent of the flower remains when the form is gone, so will the lingering sweetness of these rejoicings in and renewal of old time friendship come back to the survivors. And so the old and the new once more blend and start anew to realize a grand march in the next quarter-century, that will realize the dream and the prophecy of that just past.Arkansas City Traveler, October 1, 1879.
A party of four, consisting of two men and two "soiled doves" from Wichita came to our town Monday afternoon. Meeting one of our citizens on horseback, they took him from the horse and beat him without mercy. On complaint, they were arrested and brought before Judge Christian for investigation. The Judge has an eye to this kind of business, and will receive the endorsement of every good citizen in placing his seal of condemnation upon the disorderly characters who attempt to "run the town" in their interest. This investigation resulted in the modest little fine of $47.00, which was promptly paid without much chin music. We understand that the livery was the recipient of about $15.00 from the party for transportation to Winfield. Next.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 22, 1879.
The northeast corner of Summit Street and Central Avenue, now occupied by Judge Christian, has been purchased of Mr. Sodon by Frank Speers, for $1,000.
[APPEAL FOR HELP FOR JUDGE CHRISTIAN.]
Arkansas City Traveler, January 28, 1880.
A Fair Appeal.
Would it not be fair and generous considering the length of time that Judge Christian has been with us, and the many efforts that he has made to build and uphold the city, now as he has grown blind in the service to give something towards restoring his sight? In making the journey for this purpose, he will necessarily have to take his daughter along, and the expenses will be heavy
Cmore than he can do at present. But not more than this whole-souled generous community can do if they try.Arkansas City Traveler, February 4, 1880.
Miss DeGrasse and T. A. Wilkinson have very kindly offered to come down and give a concert for the benefit of Judge Christian. The bar of Winfield have responded to the wants of the Judge with alacrity and generosity, and we hope our people will not remain behind in the good work.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 4, 1880.
James Christian Blind.
The following from the Arkansas City TRAVELER is the first intimation we have had of the fact stated.
"Would it not be fair and generous, considering the length of time that Judge Christian has been with us, and the many efforts that he has made to build and uphold the city, now as he has grown blind in the service, to give something toward restoring his sight? In making the journey for this purpose, he will necessarily have to take his daughter along, and his expenses will be heavy
Cmore than he can do at the present, but not more than this whole-souled, generous community can do, if they try.""Jimmy" Christian used to live in Lawrence, and is well known in Eastern Kansas. We believe that if an effort was made the lawyers of this part of the State would add to the fund proposed. Commonwealth.
A subscription is in circulation for the benefit of Judge Christian, and we hope the public will respond generously to the call.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 11, 1880.
Marshal Gray collected for the benefit of James Christian and paid over to him, taking his receipt therefor, the sum of one hundred and sixty-five dollars and twenty-five cents.
Judge Christian and daughter left here last Monday for Pittsburg [Pittsburgh], where he expects an operation for the removal of cataract from his eyes. He requests us to state that during his absence his address will be Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, care Duquesne Bank.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 11, 1880.
Remember the concert at the M. E. Church on Friday night for the benefit of Judge Christian. Prof. Wilkinson and Miss DeGrasse of Winfield, assisted by the world renowned Prof. Hoyt, will make it entertaining to all lovers of music, and as the cause for which they labor is for the relief of suffering humanity we hope the public will give them a full house. These distinguished musicians offer their services gratis and the M. E. denomination, resolved not to be outdone, make no charges for the use of their church. The people of Arkansas City are renowned for their kindness of heart and readiness to assist the unfortunate. Go "Cast thy bread upon the waters and it shall return unto thee after many days."
Arkansas City Traveler, February 25, 1880.
Pittsburg Pa. Feb. 18, 1880.
Dr. Nathan Hughes:
On leaving home I promised to keep you and my friends posted in regard to our movements.
I arrived here on Sunday the 15th about noon, and soon found our friends, all well and hearty.
We were very much fatigued from our long journey, but after a days rest we were both all right again.
On yesterday I called upon the most eminent oculist in the City, and after a consultation with him, and an examination of my eyes, he informed me in case of an absolute necessity an operation could be performed now with safety, but that in his judgment the cataract was not ripe enough to perform the operation with perfect safety; and that it would be much better to wait six or eight weeks longer, until the cataract would become quite ripe.
I am not in a situation to take any risks in the matter, as almost my life is at stake on the success of the operation. He gave me good encouragement and had no doubt that when the cataract became ripe and no unforeseen impediment he could give me the sight of one eye as good as ever
Cunder no circumstances would he operate upon both of them at the same time, nor indeed would he operate upon the second eye, if the first was an entire success, that one good eye was better than two impaired eyes, he never advised an operation upon the other eye, if a man had one good one.He also informed me that generally there is no more difficulty to be apprehended from the removal of the cataract, properly ripe, by a skillful operation than there was in drawing a tooth.
Under these circumstances I will be detained longer than I expected, and as the distance is too great and the expenses too heavy to return home and then return and make another trip.
I am enjoying myself as well as could be expected under the circumstances, owing to the dark atmosphere and smoky clouds that overhang Pittsburg. I do not see as clearly as I did at home, in the pure clear atmosphere of Arkansas City.
Pittsburg is now booming; her foundries and manufactories are all running on full time, and have orders on hand that it will take them months ahead to fill. Everybody here seems busy and contented. Pittsburg has improved most wonderfully in the past few years. Streets that, on my last visit, some fifteen years ago, were lined with little, dingy, one-story frame buildings, are now hemmed in by five- and six-story buildings whose architectural beauty and magnificent adornment absolutely astonish a frontiersman, like your humble servant, but enough for the present.
Thanking you and the many friends in Cowley county for the kindness and generosity exhibited in my behalf, I remain yours truly,
JAS. CHRISTIAN.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 14, 1880.
We are informed by Mrs. Christian that the operation on the Judge's eyes for the removal of cataract has resulted in the restoration of his sight. He is now in the hospital at Pittsburg [Pittsburgh], but his early return to this place is expected.
[LETTER FROM JUDGE JAMES CHRISTIAN.]
Arkansas City Traveler, June 23, 1880 - FRONT PAGE.
FROM JUDGE CHRISTIAN.
ALLEGHENY CITY, PA., June 15, 1880.
Editors Traveler: I have been here four months tomorrow in this busy, bustling city where all is life and activity. Still there is little going on here of a local character that would be interesting to parties at a distance. It is true that great improvements have taken place in this city and vicinity, in fact and in reality. Pittsburgh, properly speaking, extends twenty-five or thirty miles up and down the rivers, whose junction meet at old Ft. Duquesne in the forks of the Alleghany and Monongahela.
When I arrived here in February, the iron interest was booming. All the factories were running night and day, straining every nerve to fill the demand. About the first of April the boom "busted," and the iron and metal ware took a fall. Nails can be now bought here for about half what they cost in February. The rolling mills are still running, however, on full time, but there is not that rush that there was some time ago.
You learned from the telegraph the three great events that occurred the past week, the unexpected nomination of Garfield, by the Republicans, and the jollifications over the event; the great oil conflagration at Titusville, Pennsylvania, by which 250,000 barrels of oil were destroyed, worth $1,000,000; and the Narragansett horror on Long Island sounds, by which some one hundred lives were lost.
Occasionally a word is said, by the papers, on the Whittaker case. The people generally do not concur with the court of inquiry that Whittaker cut off his own ears to create sympathy for him on his examinations.
The experts, however, are still at work, not examining the marks upon paper, but the marks upon his ears. Some of them think they discover tooth marks. If this be so the public may change their opinion and agree with the court that Whittaker, in a fit of despondency, "chewed off his own ears." This is the only conclusion that I can come to. The affair from beginning to ending has been a disgrace to our nation, and those connected with the shameful mockery of trial. Blue blood has trampled in the dust a black skin.
[Note: The Whittaker case was covered extensively in eastern papers. Whittaker was a Negro cadet at West Point. The following appeared about the time Christian wrote his letter:
AThe investigation in the Whittaker case at West Point still goes on, the latest being the fact that five experts have examined the note of warning sent to Whittaker and all conclude in stating that it is in his own handwriting.@ MAW]I leave here in a few days for home, but I am sorry to say with little brighter prospects than when I came. I have had two operations upon the right eye with no apparent benefit, but the eye is so weak from the operation and the inflammation that followed it, that it would be difficult to say positively what will be the result. Time alone will determine that.
Yours Respectfully,
JAS. CHRISTIAN.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 30, 1880.
Judge Christian has returned to his home in this city, and we are sorry to say has not been benefited by the operations performed upon his eyes so far.
[Note: Judge Christian
=s eyesight began to fail in 1879. He became totally blind in 1882.]Arkansas City Traveler, October 13, 1880.
Judge Christian has moved his office back into his old quarters, over Mantor's grocery, where he can be found during the day. Parties wishing any kind of deeds or papers drawn up should give the Judge a fair share of their business. His age and affliction constitute a double claim upon our people, and it can be met with no extra cost to our citizens but a little thoughtfulness when needing anything in his line.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 2, 1881.
A concurrent resolution was introduced in the House last Friday, which was adopted, memorializing Congress to grant a pension to James Christian, of this city.
Winfield Courier, February 3, 1881.
The senate passed last Thursday the senate concurrent resolution presented by Mr. Hackney, memorializing congress to grant a pension to James Christian, of Arkansas City. Mr. Christian was formerly the law partner of Gen. James H. Lane, at Lawrence. He was captain and quartermaster in the Union army during the war, from which he retired with clean hands but impaired constitution. He lost his property in Lawrence by raids and other misfortune, and since then has moved to Arkansas City, where in his age and poverty he has become legally blind, probably the remote result of exposure during the war; but as he will not answer to this, he does not get a pension. The senate did well in passing this resolution.
Winfield Courier, February 3, 1881.
In the House on Monday, S. C. B. No. 20, requesting Congress to pass an act placing Jas. Christian on the U. S. pension rolls was read. Mr. Lemmon asked that the resolution lie over as Mr. Mitchell, who resided at the home of James Christian, was absent. Mr. Russell hoped Mr. Lemmon would withdraw his motion, as many of the members of this House knew old Jimmy Christian, and he wanted a chance to vote for it. Mr. Lawhead moved that the name of Mrs. Martha Angell be added as an amendment, and made a strong and earnest speech in support of the motion. Mr. Houston did not think it right to make a Christian carry an Angell on his back; that she could soar on her own wings. Mr. Legate did not favor the amendment; it was too much of a combination. The motion to concur was lost, 44 to 50.
[CAPT. JAMES CHRISTIAN OF ARKANSAS CITY: RESOLUTION PRESENTED.]
TRAVELER, FEBRUARY 9, 1881 - EDITORIAL PAGE.
A resolution was before the legislature requesting Congress to pension Capt. Jas. Christian, of Arkansas City. "Jimmy" Christian, as he is familiarly called by the old settlers of Kansas, served through the war in the Commissary Department. Unlike some others who bore the rank and received the pay of a Captain, Jimmy didn't know how to save $200,000 or $300,000 in three or four years on a salary of $125 per month. He came out of the service as poor as when he entered it, with no blot or blemish upon his name as an officer or a man. Now he is old, worn out, and blind, and his blindness results from disease contracted while in the service. It would seem under these circumstances a mere matter of justice for the legislature of Kansas to press his case upon the attention of Congress, particularly when we have so many big, double-fisted, healthy men, who have not performed one-half the service Capt. Christian has rendered his country, drawing pensions for imaginary injury.
Caldwell Commercial
Winfield Courier, March 10, 1881.
The resolution asking that James Christian be placed on the pension rolls finally passed both Houses.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 6, 1881.
A NO. 1 FAMILY PONY FOR SALE CHEAP.
I will sell my dun mare and colt, also a good half worn top buggy and harness, at a bargain. Anyone wanting such can see them by calling on me, at the first white house north of the schoolhouse.
JAMES CHRISTIAN.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 11, 1881.
Entertainment for Judge Christian.
Go to The Entertainment At the M. E. Church, Tomorrow, Thursday evening, For the benefit of Judge Christian.
The following is the proposed programme.
Full Chorus: Ladies and gentlemen.
Instrumental: Mrs. Baker and Mr. Griffith.
Aileen Allena: Song and chorus
Cgentlemen."The Irish at Home," with anecdotes
CJ. Wilson.Quartette: Gentlemen.
Reading: Mrs. Farrar.
Instrumental: Mrs. Baker and Wm. Griffith.
Singing: Ladies.
Solo: Mrs. Eddy.
Reading: Irish story
CJas. Wilson.Grande Finale Musicale: Ladies and Gents.
Winfield Courier, September 15, 1881.
We notice that Capt. James Christian has taken C. C. Rolland as a law partner. The latter must furnish the eyes, but the former can furnish a goodly amount of legal knowledge and experience. We wish them great success.
Cowley County Courant, November 24, 1881.
Capt. James Christian, the oldest living member of the Kansas bar, will speak at Manning's opera house Friday night on Ireland and the Irish.
Cowley County Courant, December 1, 1881.
Capt. James Christian, who lectures here Friday night, has a history which many Kansans would be glad to have coupled with his biography. He is the oldest member of the Kansas bar, and was for some time during the early days of Kansas, the law partner of Jim Lane, and was identified with many of the early hardships of our now proud, prosperous state. He was one of the first to take up arms in defense of the Union, and like his distinguished countryman, Gen. James Shields, left no stain upon the flag of his adopted country, save that of his own blood. He served for a long time as assistant commissary of subsistence, and left the service a poor man, which was surely an unusual occurrence. He defended Josiah Miller, editor of a Lawrence Free State paper, arrested and tried on the 15th of May, 1856, for treason, and cleared him. Succeeded F. Chapman as a member of the Council, January 28th, 1857.
Was a member of the Democratic Territorial convention at Leavenworth, November 28th, 1858. Was the Democratic nominee for Judge of the Fourth Judicial District in 1859, and defeated by Solon O. Thatcher, of Lawrence, receiving 1,782 votes to Mr. Thatcher's 2,568. Was a member of the Atchison Democratic Convention, March 27, 1860.
Commenced the publication of the Lawrence State Journal in partnership with Milt Reynolds, in June, 1865. Was vice-president of the National Union State convention at Topeka, September 20, 1866. Was again defeated for Judge of the Fourth District, November 3, 1868, this time by O. A. Bassett, of Lawrence, who received 4,584 votes to the Captain's 1,960, and met with the usual Democratic success in Kansas (defeat) until December 6, 1870, when he was elected as a Trustee of the State Horticultural Society at Manhattan.
While in the Union army, the Captain contracted a disease from which he has since suffered, and which three years ago resulted in the loss of his eye sight, one of the greatest calamities that can befall any man. Many of our people know Capt. Christian, and few Kansans but have heard and read of him. All who can should attend his lecture Friday night.
Winfield Courier, November 24, 1881.
Judge James Christian will lecture in the Opera House next Friday evening on the subject, "Ireland and the Irish." The Judge is a pleasant speaker and handles his subject well. He has met with affliction in the almost total loss of sight, and deserves, and we trust will secure, a large audience. The admission is twenty-five cents.
Winfield Courier, December 1, 1881.
Judge Christian's lecture last Friday evening was tolerably well attended and the audience was very well pleased with it. Over a hundred tickets were sold that were not taken in at the door. The net proceeds were $80.35. Senator Hackney and all the members of the bar took hold of the matter with a will and furnished out of their own pockets money to pay half rent and other expenses, so that the Judge might get the total proceeds.
Cowley County Courant, February 9, 1882.
The first child baptized in the Episcopal Church in Kansas was a daughter of James Christian, now of Arkansas City.
Cowley County Courant, February 23, 1882.
Cowley County has the two oldest living members of the Supreme Court of Kansas. Judge James Christian, of Arkansas City, is the oldest member. J. Marion Alexander, of Winfield, is the second. They were both admitted at Lecompton, the same day in December, 1855, the first day the court was organized. Samuel D. LeCompt was Chief Justice, Rush, Elmore, Saunders, and W. Johnson, Associate Justices; Noel Eccleson, Clerk; and Andrew J. Isaacs, United States Attorney. On the same day was admitted R. R. Reed, Marcus J. Parrott, and Edmund Brierley. But three of the above named gentlemen are living: Judge Christian, Judge LeCompt, and Col. Alexander. Traveler.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 5, 1882.
Judge Christian gave his lecture on "Ireland and the Irish" at the M. E. church Monday night. For various reasons it was interesting and all went away satisfied that they had heard it. His historical review gave one a new conception of the antiquity of the Irish race. They are as remarkable as the Jews for the vitality of their facial peculiarities. The Judge gave us a graphic picture of the habits, customs, strength, and weakness of the peasantry. The speaker lost the location of his audience, and turned his face and spoke almost entirely to the empty benches in the "amen" corner of the church. This touched us as quite pitiful. We are glad to say that he realized about $35 net, and we hope he may succeed as well and better elsewhere in the State. Beacon.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 26, 1882.
The law firm of Christian & Holland have dissolved. The junior partner, C. C. Holland, left for Aberdeen, Dakota Territory, where he will probably locate. He is a young lawyer of ability and energy and will win success and friends wherever he goes.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 26, 1882.
Judge Christian returned to his home Friday, looking hale and hearty. While absent he visited Wichita, Emporia, Topeka, Lawrence, and Kansas City, and was cordially received at all places. Mrs. Christian accompanied him; she had not seen Kansas City for thirty years and consequently noticed many changes.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 3, 1882.
In a recent issue of the Down Recorder, published at Downpatrick, Ireland, we noticed an address presented to Mr. John Richard McConnell upon the occasion of his erecting a new Post Office building. Mr. McConnell has been Postmaster of Downpatrick for the past seven-teen years, and this address was presented by the patrons of the office as a token of their esteem and regard. It was also accompanied by a substantial token, a purse of sovereigns and a locket for Mrs. McConnell.
Downpatrick is the native town of our townsman, Judge James Christian, and from him we also learn that the Mr. McConnell above named is the brother of Mrs. John W. French, of this place, and it is safe to say that he (Mr. McConnell) has no sympathy with the Land Leaguers.
Arkansas City Traveler, November 29, 1882.
A righteous decision, and one that will be highly appreciated, not only by the recipient and his family, but by the entire community, and his host of friends all over the State.
It is with great pleasure we announce the gratifying intelligence that the Commissioner of Pensions has placed upon the roll of Invalid pensioners our old friend, Judge Christian, of this place, who has been totally blind for the past four years, from injuries received while a Captain in the U. S. Army, some 19 years ago. This, indeed, will be gratifying intelligence to his many friends all over the State, who for the past two years have anxiously waited for the result. We take this occasion to say that no decision by the Commissioner of Pensions for several years has given such universal satisfaction to the people of this State. It was mainly through the untiring efforts of our distinguished Senator P. B. Plumb and Representative Ryan that the above result has been brought about, and we hereby tender them the thanks of this entire community, and assure them that their efforts will not be forgotten soon by the voters of Southern Kansas, irrespective of party.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 21, 1883.
Judge Christian strained his back while attempting to lift a barrel of water that was frozen, last week, which laid him up for several days. Since then he has removed to his own house, under his own roof once more, to the south part of town, in the property known as the Woodyard house.
Winfield Courier, November 22, 1883.
A List of Pensioners, Cowley County, showed that James Christian was entitled to a pension of $72.00 per month, effective November 1882, for total blindness from sunstroke. He received back pay of $1,200.
Winfield Courier, June 7, 1883.
Judge Christian walks pretty well for a blind man. Every morning he can be seen on the porch of his house with his hand on a stretched rope pacing forward and back for an hour or more. He walks sixty yards a minute, or 500 yards in sixteen and two-thirds minutes, 3,600 yards per hour, and in the course of a year would walk 766 miles. His new home affords him more pleasure than the small room he occupied on Summit street, and he has improved it so that it is one of the most attractive places in town. He enjoys good health, has a pleasant home with his family about him, and tries to make the best of life under his affliction. Now that he is in prosperity, so to speak, he has not forgotten the friends that aided him, and always speaks in the kindest terms of Senator Hackney, Hon. Thos. Ryan, Senator Plumb, and others who placed him in the circumstances he is today, where we earnestly hope, by the will of the Almighty, he may live and die in peace. Traveler.
Arkansas City Republican, March 20, 1886.
MARRIED. Wednesday evening at the residence of the bride
=s parents, Miss Linda Christian and W. A. Daniels were united in marriage by Rev. J. O. Campbell. A number of invited guests were in attendance and the bridal couple were the recipients of many handsome presents. The bride is the daughter of Judge James Christian. The groom is a salesman in the clothing emporium of Youngheim & Co. The REPUBLICAN wishes Mr. and Mrs. Daniels all the possible happiness of married life.Arkansas City Republican, March 19, 1887.
Judge Jas. Christian sold 50 x 90 feet of his lots with a frontage on 3rd Avenue to T. E. Elgan, of Ohio, for $3,200.
Judge James Christian, born September 29, 1819, died April 14, 1895. He was buried in Riverview Cemetery at Arkansas City. His death was a quiet and peaceful one. He breathed his last on Easter morning at 6:15 o
=clock.His wife is buried beside Judge Christian. We do not know her birth and death dates.