Flour Mills in Winfield.

July 1, 1871 - Censor.- We refer to the magnificent water privileges and powers to be found on the Walnut and other streams. These will be sought after in the near future and instead of one flouring mill that now utilizes but a tithe of the power that really exists, others and more extensive structures will utilize the whole. (We have no record of whose mill this is or where it was located.)

October 21, 1871 - Censor - R. S. Cross, of Indianapolis, Indiana, and his brother, T. Cross, of Burlington, this State, are in town. They are looking for a good location for a mill site. They are highly pleased with the one on Col. Manning's farm west of town and talk of purchasing it and putting up a good mill. This is what we need and gentlemen Cross cannot make a better investment.

March 15, 1872 - Messenger - A large four-story Flouring Mill, containing four run of stone, is to be built the present season. The admirable water power at "Knowle's ford," has been purchased for the site, and the gentlemen controlling it have the capital and experience to make it first class. It is to be built of stone, like our splendid school buildings, and will, with other improvements to be made this season, fill the people of Cowley County with pride of their capital town.

Winfield can soon claim one of the finest mills in the State. Mr. Blanden, of this place, and Mr. Myers, of Paola, are the gentlemen who have it in hand and they will soon start to work on the erection of a fine four story stone building.

June 29, 1872 - Messenger - Twenty teams are continually passing through town loaded with rock for the new mill foundations and the bridge piers.

Messrs. Blandin & Bliss are going ahead with their mill project and will have it completed early next winter. From five to twenty loads of rock for it passes our office every day.

July 12, 1872 - Messenger - Is it wise for the farmer to destroy his own market? Two splendid grist and flouring mills are being erected at Winfield, where every farmer in time will want to bring his grain. And manufactories will soon follow.

August 12, 1872 - Messenger - The stone work of Blandin's mill has reached the first story, the flume is all in, and the structure will soon be ready for the machinery.

August 30, 1872 - Messenger - Mr. Kochler's mill enterprise (later called Tunnel Mill) is progressing very fast. The hardest part of the work on the dam is over, and the rest of the work is going ahead at a very rapid rate.

September 20, 1872 - Messenger - Four feet of the dam for Blandin’s mill is in, which gives the place a business appearance.

October 11, 1872 - Messenger - Mr. Koehler says he can grind corn at his new mill in about two months.

October 11, 1872 - Messenger - The stone work on Bliss & Blandin's mill is progressing very fast. The manufacture of flour will soon be a leading business at Winfield.

October 18, 1872 - Messenger - The wall of the first story of Bliss & Blandin's mill is up, and the work is progressing very fast.

October 25, 1872 - Messenger - Two flouring mills are in process of construction, one by your former fellow townsman, Phil. Koehler. One of the mills will be ready for work in about a month or six weeks; the other, being larger, will not be completed much before the middle of winter.

OCTOBER 25, 1872 - Messenger - We received an invitation a few days ago from Mr. Bliss to take a ride down to the new mill of Bliss & Blandin. The workmen are at work on the second story of the building, and are pushing the work ahead very fast. The building is about 40 x 45, and is to be three and a half stories above the flume. The machinery will be here in a few weeks. The proprietors intend putting in four run of burs, and will no doubt, as soon as practicable put in a woolen mill. The power is sufficient for a very extensive business, and the men who control it have the capital to improve it to its utmost capacity.

January 18, 1873 - Courier - A three and one-half story stone mill is rapidly approaching completion, built by Messrs. Bliss & Blandon, with an expenditure of twenty thousand dollars, and before it will be entirely completed will absorb at least five thousand more. This company are now introducing their superior machinery into the building and will have all in operation before the first of March. When the time arrives that will demand additions, they will be promptly made.

Andrew Koehler, a miller of experience, has a frame structure underway to be used also for milling purposes. The design to secure power by tunneling through a neck of land to gain a fall of water without damaging the stream was an original idea and will prove a flattering success.

These mills will both be run by waterpower, the economy of which in a country where fuel is an object, as it is here, will be realized when the profits of a year's business will be

computed.

January 18, 1873 - Courier - Ten teams arrived this week from the railroad, bringing the new machinery for Bliss & Blandon's Grist mill. It will be placed in the house at once, and all reasonable efforts will be used to have it in running order by the first of March.

March 27, 1873 - Courier - Bliss & Blandon's mill grinds corn for twenty miles around and still is not crowded.

May 8, 1873 - Courier - We had the pleasure of a little drive around in company with Hon. L. J. Webb, to see the Fair Grounds and the two new mills, one just below the bridge on the west of town, and the other on a narrow peninsula a half mile south. The former is built of rock, three stories high. Two run of burrs have been put in, and it is the intention to add two more. It is run by water power. There is a splendid rock dam attached. Messrs. Bliss & Blandin, proprietors.

May 22, 1873 - Courier - J. C. Blandin, has just returned from Cincinnati, Ohio, where he has been to purchase the machinery necessary for the completion of his mill. Oh, for at least one dozen more Blandin's in Winfield.

May 27, 1873 - Courier - The dam of Messrs. Bliss & Blandin's fine flouring mills at this place was washed out last Sunday. This was one of the finest pieces of masonry in the country, and built at an enormous cost. The cause of its giving way is no doubt owing to the fact that the west end of the dam was not completed in its circle as it was intended to be finished.

Messrs. Bliss & Blandin will, as soon as the waters fall, begin the work of rebuilding their dam.

June 26, 1873 - Courier - Joseph C. Blandin has purchased a half interest in the mill of Koeler & Covert.

July 24, 1873 - Courier - Mr. J. C. Blandin has returned from Cincinnati, where he has been to order complete machinery for his new Tunnel Mills. As he had everything fitted up at the foundry, it will require but a few days after the machinery gets here to grind wheat.

JULY 31, 1873 - Courier - Case No. 209. In case of Wood vs. Millspaugh, receiver in the case of Bliss vs. Blandin--Order--"That said Millspaugh appear before this Court on the morning of July 29th, and show cause why an attachment should not be issued against him for a violation of the injunction heretofore granted in this action."

AUGUST 7, 1873 - Courier -

Receiver's Sale.

Cowley County District Court, 13th Judicial District, State of Kansas.

CHARLES A. BLISS, Plaintiff )

versus ) No. 207.

JOSEPH C. BLANDIN, Defendant)

NOTICE is hereby given that the undersigned, the receiver in said action, will, pursuant to the order of said court to him directed, on Monday, the 8th day of September, 1873, from 9 o'clock A.M., to six o'clock P.M. of said day, offer for sale at public auction, on the premises the following described real property, situated in said county to-wit: Those tracts or parcels of land and premises situated, lying and being in the township of Winfield, County of Cowley, and State of Kansas, and being in the north half (½) of the northeast quarter (1/4) of section number twenty nine (29), township number thirty-two (32), south of range number four (4) east; and bounded as follows, to-wit: One lot beginning at a point in the east line of said north half (½) of said northeast quarter (1/4) of said section number twenty-nine (29) distant sixteen (16) rods north from the southeast corner of said north half (½) of said quarter (1/4) section and running thence north along said east line thirty-two (32) rods; thence west at right angles to said last mentioned line twenty-five (25) rods; thence south at right angles thirty-two (32) rods; thence east at right angles twenty-five (25) rods by place of beginning containing five (5) acres.

Another of said lots or pieces of land bounded as follows: Beginning at a point in the south line of said north half (½) of said section number twenty-nine (29) distant twenty (20) rods west of the southeast corner of said north half of said section number twenty-nine (29) running thence north parallel to the east line of said section number twenty-nine (29) sixteen (16) rods; thence west at right angles five (5) rods; thence north at right angles to the center of the Walnut river; thence down said river along its center to where the same intersects the south line of said north half (½) of said section number twenty-nine (29); thence east along said south line to the place of beginning. Containing five (5) acres more or less.

Said property to be appraised by three disinterested householders of said county, and sold for not less than two thirds its appraised value upon the following terms: One-third cash in hand; one-third in six months, and one-third in twelve months from the date of sale.

The deferred payments to be secured by notes bearing interest at twelve percent, per annum, after maturity, with at least two sufficient sureties and by mortgage on the premises. The purchaser to receive deed and possession upon complying with the above terms.

Said property being a grist and flouring mill and mill property and water privilege belonging to the parties above named.

Witness my hand at Winfield, Kansas, this 6th day of August 1873.

JOHN W. MILLSPAUGH, Receiver.

August 21, 1873 - Courier - The suit of Chas. A. Bliss vs. Joseph C. Blandin that has been pending in the District Court for some months has at last been amicably settled, Mr. Bliss purchasing Mr. Blandin's interest in the mill. We speak for the entire community when we say that everybody will be pleased to learn this fact. The mill will now be splendly repaired, and ere long we will again hear the pleasant hum of the burrs as they grind into flour Cowley county's first crop of wheat.

SEPTEMBER 11, 1873 - Courier - Last Saturday we were shown some of the first flour ever ground in Winfield out of Cowley county wheat. It was from Blandin's mills. The flour was of the first quality, and we think we are safe in saying that when Mr. Bliss gets his mill in operation (which will be soon) the people of this county will no longer need to import their flour.

July 31, 1874 - Courier - 70,000 pounds of flour, Cowley county's first exportation, was sent to Wichita yesterday from the Tunnel Mills.

October 22, 1874 - Courier - The Tunnel Mills will be running by steam in a few days. Mr. Bartlow's engine is being attached for that purpose.

April 29, 1875 - Courier - The enterprising firm of C. A. Bliss & Co., in order to keep pace with the time, and also be in readiness to grind the new wheat drop--the prospect for which is simply immense--have been making extensive improvements in their fine stone flouring mills. They have added, among other things, a new bolt [? belt ?], and now turn off some of the best flour possible to be manufactured.

October 21, 1877 - Traveler - It takes about three bushels of wheat to make one hundred pounds of flour. The toll at steam mills is one-sixth, and at water mills one-seventh. When they grind for cash, they charge from fifteen to twenty cents per bushel. For shelling corn the millers charge two cents per bushel. Two bushels of good corn will make one hundred pounds of meal. The toll is from one-quarter to one-third of the meal. The standard weight of one bushel of wheat is sixty pounds; of shelled corn, fifty-six pounds; corn in the ear, seventy pounds. Both mills at this place are buying wheat and corn, paying from fifty to seventy-five cents for wheat and fifteen cents for corn.

November 1, 1877 - Courier - Mr. David Craig while engaged on a contract for excavating earth at the Tunnel Mills was seriously if not fatally injured by the falling of a high bank of earth and rock upon him, literally crushing him. Mr. Craig is a young man of industrious habits.

NOVEMBER 20, 1878. - Traveler - Editor Traveler: Monday afternoon at about 3 o'clock, a man by the name of Bailey was accidently killed by the caving in of the bank at the Tunnel Mills. Some two feet of the bank fell in, and as the men were about twenty-two feet below, it completely buried the unfortunate victim. One other man was buried up to the waist, but was not seriously injured.

The dead man was under the earth about one hour, thus completely extinguishing all life long before they could reach him. Doctor Black was summoned and came with all haste, but medical assistance was useless. The workers were engaged in walling up the bank, which should have been done years ago, whereby a life would have been saved. ED.

P.S. This makes two men who have been killed in this manner at this mill.

WINFIELD COURIER, NOVEMBER 21, 1878. A young man late from Illinois named George Bailey recently took a contract of Harter, Harris & Co. to excavate the earth at the mouth of the tunnel at the Tunnel Mills. While engaged at this work last Monday the perpendicular bank of earth above him slid off and fell on him, crushing him down and burying him five feet deep. Before the earth could be removed from him, life was extinct. He had noticed the first symptom of the slide and started to run from under but did not succeed. Another man at work with him was more fortunate. He was pushed over and buried up to his waist but not injured.

---

JANUARY 2, 1879. - Courier - The capacity of the Tunnel Mill is 6,000,000 pounds of flour and 1,000,000 pounds of corn meal per year. It has made in the past year about 4,000,000 pounds of flour and 1,000,000 pounds of corn meal.

January 9, 1879 - Courier - C. C. Harris has leased his interest in the Tunnel Mills to the Harter Bros. Mr. Harris is now a "gentleman of leisure" and will spend his time doctoring his ears, which he had the misfortune to freeze one day last week.

February 13, 1879 - Courier - The Tunnel Mills has had another change in its management, Virgil Harter having traded his interest in it to his father for town property in Burlington, Kansas, where he will soon remove. We will be sorry to lose Mr. Harter, as he is one of our best men.

MAY 29, 1879. - Courier - J. L. Horning has leased a half interest in the mill, and it will hereafter be run under the firm name of Harter & Horning. Mr. Horning came here about one year ago and engaged in the grocery business. He had a heavy competition and a poor location and people slyly wagged their heads and prophesied "a bust" in the grocery line. But "76 Horning" didn't come to bust, and he didn't bust. Six months from that time Horning's delivery wagon made daily visits to the houses of these same gentlemen who prophesied the "bust," and Horning was doing the grocery business of the town. We don't intend this as a "puff," but as a plain statement of facts.

All that has been needed to make the Tunnel mill one of the best in the country is some good, practical hand at the helm. Mr. Horning's twenty years experience in the milling business, and his characteristic "get up and get" mode of running things peculiarly adapts him for the business, and we expect to see the Tunnel mills flour quoted all over the State before a year.

JULY 17, 1879. - Courier - A little boy by the name of John Mills, aged about 7 years, was drowned in the whirlpool above the Tunnel Mills last Thursday afternoon. He had gone there with some boys, sons of R. B. Pratt, to swim, and getting beyond his depth, was swept into the whirlpool. The little boys immediately gave the alarm, but the body was not found for some time afterward. Coroner Graham held an inquest and a verdict of accidental drowning was returned. This the second case of drowning which has occurred at that place.

APRIL 15, 1880. - Courier - Last week Mr. C. A. Bliss sold his mill to Messrs. Wood, Wolf & Williams, of Ohio, for $25,000. The purchasers will make large additions to the property in new machinery, etc. The arrangements for the sale have been completed, but the money is not yet paid over. The name was changed to "Winfield City Mills".

November 25, 1880 - Courier - Wood, of the late firm of Wood, Jettinger, & Co., is now the sole owner of the Winfield mill.

December 9, 1880 - Courier - As we predicted, C. A. Bliss has gone into business again. A man who has been in active business for many years cannot keep out of it. He has bought an interest in his old mill again and now he will buy wheat and sell flour. The new firm is styled Bliss & Wood.

January 19, 1881 - Traveler - Bliss & Wood, of Winfield, proprietors of the City mills, are tired of trusting solely to water, and are putting in a 100-horsepower engine.

January 20, 1881 - Courier - Bliss & Wood, proprietors of the City mills, though they have one of the best water powers in the state, have got tired of depending upon the Walnut river for their power, and have now let the contract to put in a hundred horse power engine and boilers. The engine house will be of brick, 24 x 60 feet, metal roof, and with a brick stack fifty feet high above the base. It will be so arranged that a part of the power can be carried across the river when a woolen mill is erected. The engine will be from the celebrated Bass [? Bess ? Buss ?] machine works at Fort Wayne, Indiana. The contract price for this work is six thousand dollars, and it will commence at once and be completed, if possible, by March first. Samuel Clarke, the original owner of the Southwestern machine shops, is the contractor, and left Tuesday for Fort Wayne. We are glad this gentleman secured this contract, for he is an honest man and a splendid mechanic.

August 16, 1882 - Traveler - On Sunday morning last at 4 o'clock, Bliss' mill was almost entirely destroyed by fire. When first discovered the fire was well underway in several places; the safe had been rifled, and it is supposed the mill had been set on fire. The loss will reach about $45,000.

September 13, 1882 - Traveler - The defaulting bookkeeper of Bliss & Wood's mill at Winfield, which recently burned, has confessed to setting it on fire in the hope that by destroying the books, he would get rid of all evidence as to his financial irregularities.

December 6, 1882 - Traveler - Colgate, who was tried for setting fire to Bliss & Wood's mill, a short time since, was acquitted of the charge, and is now at large. The verdict was a surprise all around, and we hear great dissatisfaction expressed thereat.

Winfield Courier, April 5, 1883.

A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.

James McGuire Caught in a Belt and Killed at the Tunnel Mills.

DIED. Last Thursday morning the Tunnel Mills were the scene of another fatal accident. Mr. James McGuire is a brother of the McGuires’, merchants of this place. He was working at the mill and went upstairs to put on a belt. The machinery was running at the time. He took hold of the belt to put it over a pulley when it threw a loop over his arm and he was drawn around and around, his feet striking the ceiling every revolution. Mr. Stump, the head miller, was in the basement of the mill at the time, and noticing that something was wrong, ran up and shut the water off. He then went upstairs and saw McGuire hanging in the pulley. He immediately went to work cutting the belts and soon, with the help of others, got him down. He was found to be still alive and was put in a wagon and taken to his home on Manning Street. An examination was made by the physicians, who found that almost every bone in his body was broken, especially in his feet, legs, and arms. The pulleys were making one hundred and twenty revolutions a minute when he was caught and he must have been whirled around with terrible force. He was conscious for several hours and until a few moments before he died, and was able to tell how the accident happened. This is the third man that has lost his life at that mill. Two were killed several years ago while digging the tunnel by dirt caving in on them.

Winfield Courier, February 14, 1884.

Mr. Jas. Kirk has added a second story to his mill and intends putting in two wheat buhrs, which will enable him to do custom work in that line as well as in corn.

Winfield Courier, February 21, 1884.

Fred Webber has left the Winfield Roller Mills. His percentage of the profits for the past year is over ten thousand dollars—not so bad for one year’s work.

Winfield Courier, February 28, 1884.

We stated last week tht Mr. Fred Webber received about ten thousand dollars as his last year’s percentage as foreman of the Winfield Roller Mills. We were mistaken. This amount accrued from two years and a half’s foremanship, his percentage in purchasing the mill machinery—about four thousand dollars—and his superintendency of the building of the mill.

Winfield Courier, April 3, 1884.

WINFIELD’S MILLING BUSINESS.

What the Winfield Roller Mills are Doing for Winfield and Cowley County.

DESCRIPTION AND RESULTS.

Among the institutions which are doing much for the material interests of Winfield and Cowley County, the Roller Mill of Bliss & Wood is the most important. It deals exclusively in our most important product, a large part of which is here manufactured into flour and shipped thousands of miles directly to consumers. During the past year the mill has made every bushel of wheat raised in this county worth from five to ten cents more on the bushel than it would have been if depending solely on a shipping market. Aside from this it has employed a large number of persons who with their families, go toward swelling our population.

A year and a half ago the old mill of Bliss & Wood was burned. It carried but little insurance and its loss left the proprietors nearly bankrupt. But the importance of the institution to Winfield was recognized by the Winfield Bank, which at once lent its assistance in a financial way, and Messrs. Bliss & Wood commenced the erection of a new mill on the old site. Encouraged by the friendly feeling and assistance, and seeing in the future agricultural development of the county the fullest promise for such an institution, they concluded to make it first class in every respect and fixed the capacity at six hundred barrels. The building was accomplished under many difficulties and vexations, but it finally started up, since which time it has prospered, gone on extending its territory and improving the quality of its product, until today it controls the markets of Western Colorado, New Mexico, and a large part of Southern Kansas.

The mill is five stories high, built of magnesia limestone with sawed-stone front. It is located on the Walnut River and, in addition to a splendid water power, has a steam attachment of one hundred and twenty horsepower. The building was designed by Mr. Jos. S. Maus. It is a beautiful structure and complete in every way. Attached to the mill proper is the engine house, boiler, and coal rooms. About a hundred feet distant is the mill elevator, capacity 35,000 bushels, and furnished thoughout with the most approved and complete cleaning machinery in the state.

It is the inner arrangement of the mill which makes it rank as the best institution of the kind in this or any other state. In fitting it up the question of expense was the last consideration. Every appliance known to the milling trade calculated to improve the quality and quantity of the product was included in the furnishings. The plans were drawn and furnished by W. F. Gunn, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who is probably the best millwright in the United States. He also worked out what millers call “The System,” or the intricate maze of elevators, conductors, etc., which take the wheat from the elevator, conduct it through all the break rolls, “scalpers,” bolts, and purifiers, until it is finally turned out into a flour sack as “O. B.,” “Superb,” “Homo,” or “Grit,” the famous brands which have become household words all over Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. The finished plans were turned over to Mr. Jos. S. Maus, and under whose charge every timber was framed and every piece of machinery placed and connected. This was by far the most important part of the work and the skill and mechanical ability displayed by Mr. Maus, verified by the successful working of the mill for nearly two years, shows him to be the “boss” mill-wright of the west.

The first floor, partly a basement, is a maze of gearing and shafting for transmitting the power to the machinery above. It also contains the “elevator boots” and conveyors. The second floor contains thirty-four pair of “Gray’s Patent noiseless Rolls,” the applicances which have so recently knocked the old-fashioned mill stones into the junk-shop. It also contains three flour and one bran packer. The third floor contains eight silk reels, five No. 2 Smith purifiers with approved dust-catchers, and five large bins for flour, bran, etc., which run up through the third story to the fifth. They are capable of storing three days’ product of the mill. On the fourth floor is a second invoice of eight silk reels, and five No. 2 Smith purifiers with dust-catchers. On the fifth story is located all the elevator heads, five scalping reels, five No. 2 Martin Centrifical reels, one grading reel, and a machine for sweeping the little remaining flour off of the bran before it is turned over to the festive town cow. After seeing this machine our fears of foundering the cow on bran from this mill were speedily dissipated. We tried to follow a grain of wheat through all its intricate wandering before it came through as flour, but gave it up in despair. As far as we could learn it goes through about twenty miles of elevators, is mashed, pounded, scraped, hulled, dusted, and “scalped” a dozen times, then unmercifully sent back and compelled to go through the process again if Joe Maus has the least suspicion of its containing an atom of anything but pure, snow-white flour. In quality the product of the Winfield Roller Mill can never be surpassed. With a sack of “O. B.” and ten grains of common sense, any woman can be supremely happy.

The amount of business done by this mill is simply astonishing. Its full capacity is six hundred barrels a day, to produce which it takes two thousand nine hundred bushels of wheat every twenty-four hours. The firm has kindly permitted us to copy from their books the following facts and figures relative to the business done last year.

Bushels of wheat used: 294,415.40.

Amount paid for same: $241,420.80.

Average price paid: 82 cents per bushel.

Mill product shipped to foreign points: 671 cars.

Mill product used by local consumers: 8,000 sacks.

Screenings sold: 28 cars.

The mill employs an average of thirty-two men and paid out for salaries during the year $19,846. The total mill business for the year was over a half a million dollars. The mill is in charge of Mr. Jos. S. Maus, as head miller. As he designed, erected, and set it to running, he understands running it to perfection. The figures of the Mill’s business show that they consumed during the year more than half of the total wheat crop of the county. During the year to come they will use three quarters of the total product and pay Kansas City prices for it. Thus can every farmer and every businessman see the benefits of the institution. It is worth more to us than anything we have except our railroads—and if we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t have it. Messrs. Bliss & Wood have come out from under a heavy load. They risked all they had left in the world to build up this business and are entitled to the gratifying returns they are receiving on it.

That the men who handle this immense business know how to do it, is evidenced by the systematic working of the business departments. C. A. Bliss, the head of the firm, is one of our keenest, shrewdest businessmen. He exercises a general supervision over the affairs of the mill, in all its details. Mr. B. F. Wood, the junior member, handles the grain buying. He has had twelve years’ experience with grain and is perhaps the best judge of wheat in the west. He knows at “first sight” just what a lot of wheat will do in milling. To his judgment and care in the selection of stock, much of the success of the business is due. No mill can make good flour from unsuitable wheat, and Mr. Wood never allows a bushel to go into his elevator until he is satisfied that it will show the right kind of a product. The commercial business is in the hands of Mr. E. S. Bliss. His headquarters are “in the field,” and his energy has placed the firm’s product in every hamlet on the Santa Fe railroad from Emporia to Old Mexico. He has built up a most valuable market, the demands of which are only limited by the production of the mill. Messrs. Bliss & Wood assure us that their subtantial aid and encouragement in rebuilding their mill, all came from the Winfield Bank.

[THERE WAS A PICTURE OF MILL AND A SECOND BUILDING IN THIS ISSUE.]

Winfield Courier, April 10, 1884.

Mr. James Kirk has been putting another story on his grist mill back of Lynn’s and is putting in machinery by which he can grind wheat as well as corn. Heretofore he has been grinding corn exclusively.

Winfield Courier, July 17, 1884.

NOTICE.

To the following named owners of land, and to all other persons whose land may be affected by the proceedings herein mentioned:

YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT Charles A. Bliss, Benjamin F. Wood, and E. Spencer Bliss have presented to Hon. E. S. Torrance, Judge of the District Court of Cowley County, Kansas, their petition in writing, setting forth all statements required by law, and asking to have condemned to them the right to build and construct to a height two (2) feet higher than its present height, and to forever maintain at such height, their mill dam across the Walnut River, said dam being located on the north half of the northeast quarter of Section No. 29, in Township No. 32, South, of Range No. 4 East, in cowley County, Kansas, to thereby raise the water in the channels of the Walnut River and Timber Creek, above said dam, the purpose of raising said dam as aforesaid being to provide water power additional to that now owned and used by the petitioners above named and obtained by means of said existing dam, wherewith to run and operate the machinery in a large flouring and grist mill and grain elevator owned and operated by said petitioners and located upon the tract of land aforesaid; that pursuant to the prayer of said petition the said Judge has appointed the undersigned as Commissioners to meet at the place where said dam is proposed to be raised, on the Twenty-sixth (26th) day of August, 1884, and then and there to inquire touching the matters contained in said petition. And you are further notified that the undersigned Commissioners will meet at the place where said dam is proposed to be raised, on the Twenty-sixth (26th) day of August, 1884, and then and there inquire touching the matters contained in said petition, and examine the point at which said dam is proposed to be raised, and the lands and the real estate which will probably be injured by raising said dam to the height petitioned for, and hear the allegations and testimony of all parties interested, and make a separate assessment of damages which will result to any person by raising said mill dam to the height petitioned for, and its maintenance forever. And in case such work shall not be completed on that day, said Commissiones will continue the same from day to day until finally completed.

The numbers or descriptions of the tracts of land owned by non-residents of said county which will be affected by raising said dam as aforesaid, together with the names of the respective owners thereof prefixed thereto, are as follows, to wit:

B. B. Vandevender, part S. W. 1/4 and part S. E. 1/4 Sec. 21 ad part S. W. 1/4 Sec. 22;

John Sickles, part S. W. 1/4 Sec. 21;

J. B. Corson, part N. E. 1/4 Sec. 20;

The Southern Kansas Railroad Company ;art. N. W. 1/4 Sec. 28, all in Township 32, South, of Range 4 East;

L. Farr and J. Addison Rucker, part S. W. 1/4 Sec. 31, Tp. 31, S., of R. 4E.;

M. M. Wells, part S. W. 1/4 Sec. 21;

Elizabeth Taylor, part S. W. 1/4 Sec. 17 and part S. E. 1/4 Sec. 18; and

Elijah Taylor, part N. E. 1/4 in Sec. 18, in Tp. 32, S., of R. 4 E.

Witness our hands this 8th day of July, 1884.

HENRY HARBAUGH,

W. L. WEBB,

W. D. ROBERTS,

Commissioners.

McDonald & Webb, Attorneys for Petitioners.

Winfield Courier, July 31, 1884.

Raising the Dam.

The District Court has been petitioned by Messrs. Bliss & Wood to have condemned the right to raise, and forever maintain, their dam two feet above the present height. Since the health of the city is at stake, would it not be well to discuss this question? First, at the time of the great flood of six years ago, the waters of the river passed through the center of the city, between the courthouse and Main Street. Since that date the dam has been raised some three feet, a high railway embankment has been built on either side of the river, thus preventing a flood from passing on through the bottom lands. A strong embankment has been built on the east side of the mill, preventing the water from passing around as it used to do. With the water thus confined and the dam raised two feet higher, making five feet above the original dam, a repetition of the great flood would greatly damage or destroy the eastern portion of our now beautiful city. Will the COURIER call a special meeting to discuss this important question? Your Reader.

Winfield Courier, August 7, 1884.

THE MILL DAM.

EDITOR COURIER:

I notice in your last a complaint regarding the raising of the Bliss & Wood mill dam fearing great danger there from on account of overflowage, etc. I think if this is the case and large tracts of land is to be rendered useless and the greater part of the city of Winfield overflowed thus causing a great loss of property and possibly cause the removal of the county seat from Winfield, I think there should be some means brought to bear on Bliss & Wood to prevent them from doing such an unwise thing. But I cannot fully understand how the results claimed can arise from raising said dam 2 feet. I am well acquainted with the Walnut River and know that its banks are high many feet above the water level when the dam is full of water and how two feet can raise the water back over the banks which are 20 feet above the water level I cannot understand. Will someone explain for I want to understand this and then I am ready to fight the project tooth and toe nail. But if it is, it seems to me that the raising of said dam two feet can possibly be of no material damage to any person in any way, then I am in favor of the dam being raised from this standpoint. The Mill of Bliss and Wood’s has been of as much practical benefit to this county as either of our Railroads and the cheaper that mill can be made to run the more they will be able to pay for wheat and thus every farmer in the whole county will be benefitted by aforesaid said project. I am in favor of driving slow and oppose nothing which I think in its nature is calculated to enhance our interests. I think fords will be damaged but I think they are a nuisance. What the farmers up north want is good bridges and then they will not hold their grain till they can cross the fords for at such times prices are invariably low. Hoping to hear more, anon, I remain a Subscriber, a Democrat, and a St. John man.

Winfield Courier, August 14, 1884.

Mr. Holmes has purchased C. C. Harris’ interest in the Tunnel Mills and Elam Harter has purchased Lou Harter’s interest. The mill will hereafter be run by Holmes & Harter, and will be re-fitted and fixed up to do first-class work.

Winfield Courier, August 14, 1884.

More Mill Dam.

EDITOR COURIER: In your issue of the 7th, “a Democrat and St. John man,” asks how the raising of the Bliss & Wood dam can possibly affect the property of citizens. He says the banks of the Walnut are twenty feet above the water when the dam is full. Now we have made a survey, and find the main track of the Southern Kansas Railroad at the crossing of Millington Street to be four inches below high water mark, and nineteen feet above the top of the dam. I will here remark it is the low lands that are endangered. Again, the little democrat says if they are allowed to raise their dam, they will pay our farmers by saying they want bridges which is only the small item of fifteen or twenty thousand a piece. To secure the respect of the little democrat, they must sacrifice their property to B. & W. But enough of this. How does a dam throw the water out of the banks of the river? None but a Democrat unacquainted with water could ask such a question. We answer: A dam thrown across a river absolutely raises the bottom of the river to just the height of the dam so far as the water is concerned, and maintains the bottom at that height, whether there is one foot or one thousand feet going over the dam; then there is an undercurrent below the dam running upstream until it reaches the dam where it rises and joins the surface current and repeats its trip down and back, on just the same principle that a side or surface eddy is made. There being no power in water except its weight, we will suppose a dam ten feet high with ten feet of water running over the dam will give a pressure of twenty pounds per square inch on the bottom. Remove the dam, add this great pressure to the ebbing water below, and the velocity of the current will be so greatly increased that the river will be immediately drawn in its banks above. I have consumed so much valuable space, so now my little Democratic friend, take the COURIER and read up the way good Republicans are made.

To the Editor, thanks.

YOUR READER.