PRUDEN FAMILY.

Alfred, David, and Henry Pruden.

Kansas 1875 Census Bolton Township, Cowley County, March 1, 1875.

Name age sex color Place/birth Where from

Alfred Pruden 25 m w Ohio Ohio

Henry Pruden 23 m w Ohio Ohio

F. L. Pruden 21 f w Ohio Ohio

Bolton Township 1874: Alfred Pruden, 23.

Bolton Township 1874: H. B. Pruden, 26; spouse, Fannie L., 21.

Bolton Township 1878: Alfred Pruden, 28.

Bolton Township 1878: H. B. Pruden, 26; spouse, F. L., 24.

FROM THE NEWSPAPERS.

Arkansas City Traveler, April 26, 1876.

Near Salt City, Henry and Alfred Pruden had over 50 glasses broken out, and many of the neighbors suffered similar losses. One man lost six calves, and others, pigs and chickens. Quite often prairie chickens and small birds were found dead. All agree the hail stones to be as large as walnuts.

Arkansas City Traveler, May 9, 1877. Front Page.

Coal at Salt City.

SALT CITY, KAS., April 28, 1877.

At a meeting called for the purpose of taking action with regard to the organization of a coal company at this place. On motion Mr. L. Small was elected Chairman and W. E. Chenoweth, Secretary.

A letter was read by Mr. Wm. Berkey, from Todd & Royal, with regard to their proposition, on the shaft already begun. Short speeches were made by the following named persons, concerning the past, present, and future coal prospects: Messrs. Foster, Broadbent, Acton, Mills, Ward, Berry, Chenoweth, Berkey, Reynolds, and Lewis. A lively time was had.

On motion of Mr. Wm. Berkey, an election of five directors for a coal company was ordered. This resulted in the selection of the following gentlemen: George Reynolds, J. H. Hudson, Robert Mills, L. Small, and Wm. Berkey.

Moved and seconded that H. B. Pruden be the Treasurer of the company. On motion, W. E. Chenoweth was chosen Secretary.

Messrs. Berkey and Mills were instructed to confer with Todd & Royal and make arrangements with them on a proposition to proceed with the old shaft.

Motion made by Mr. Lewis that the two men who confer with Todd & Royal meet the Board of Directors on Saturday, May 5th, 1877, at 10 o’clock a.m., and give their report of the result of the conference, and that they invite Todd & Royal to meet the board at that time in the schoolhouse at Salt City.

Motion carried that there be a meeting of the citizens of the vicinity, and all interested parties, at 2 o’clock p.m., at the same place, May 5th, 1877.

Moved and carried that the Arkansas City Traveler, Winfield Courier, and Oxford Independent be requested to publish these minutes.

On motion the meeting adjourned. L. SMALL, Chairman.

W. E. CHENOWETH, Secretary.

Arkansas City Traveler, May 9, 1877.

Salt City was represented last Saturday by Wm. Berkey and H. B. Pruden.

Arkansas City Traveler, September 26, 1877.

Mr. Pruden, with his wife and daughter, arrived at Salt City last week, from his home in Dayton, Ohio. They have come out to see the boys: Henry and Alfred.

[COWLEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.]

Winfield Courier, January 17, 1878.

Commissioners’ Proceedings. At the regular meeting of January 7th, the board ordered the opening of the Laubner, Loy, and Owings roads; rejected the report of the commissioners to locate the Arkansas City and Independence state road, and refused to pay the expenses; allowed various claims, amounting to $3,878; approved the bond of Chas. Harter, sheriff; approved the bonds of a large number of township officers; received and approved the reports of trustees of all the townships except Otter, Sheridan, and Silverdale; canceled county orders paid by the treasurer to the amount of $4,403.17; canceled $27.50 in orders that had been left in the county clerk’s hands three years uncalled for; and granted ferry license across the Arkansas River, near Salt City, to Henry Pruden.

[WEST BOLTON CORRESPONDENT: “RUDY.”]

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

Pruden’s ferry is still a complete success, and that is where you want to cross the river.

Arkansas City Traveler, May 22, 1878.

MULES FOR SALE. I have one large pair and one small or medium sized pair of good work mules I will sell for cash, or on time with good security. Also one span of work horses.

H. B. PRUDEN, 1 mile east of Salt City.

[SALT CITY, SUMNER COUNTY, CORRESPONDENT: “RUDY.”]

Winfield Courier, May 30, 1878.

SALT CITY, KANSAS, May 22, 1878.

Weather warm. Crops looking well. Wheat is now in condition to cut, if done with a harvester. Corn is growing rapidly, and farmers are generally at work cleaning it. Land is in good condition. Fruit is in good condition, though somewhat thinned by the hail of last Friday evening. Wheat was but little damaged, though some of it was knocked down.

Some new arrivals in the vicinity and improving is being done by some of the old settlers. Rev. Platter of your place is putting up a new house on his farm. He has dug a well and indications are that business will be done on scientific principles. Mr. Berkey has moved into his new residence. Mrs. Donohue is now erecting a new residence on her place west of the town.

Mr. Reynold’s nursery stock is now doing well, weather very favorable. He has 27 acres of hedge plants up that look finely. Next week will be the busiest of the season. Much of the wheat will be cut. Come down and see what the prospects are. You can cross on the “boss” ferry at H. B. Pruden’s. Be sure and call on RUDY.

Arkansas City Traveler, July 10, 1878.

A FAIR OFFER. Messrs. Seymour and McClaskey say that if the town will buy the ferryboat west of town, they will put a 20-horsepower engine on it, and take a load of wheat to Little Rock. Mr. Henry Pruden also makes a good offer: He would buy this boat and the one at Salt City, and putting 1,200 bushels of wheat on the two, take the load down to Little Rock. Here he would sell the barges for what he could get, and only ask the town to pay the deficiency, as they are worth much less there than here.

Arkansas City Traveler, July 17, 1878.

The Salt City ferry is in running order.

Arkansas City Traveler, July 17, 1878.

THE PRUDEN BROTHERS, of Salt City, have loaded the boat formerly used as a ferry west of town, and intend taking their wheat down to Little Rock, if it can be done by mortal hands. Success to you, boys.

Winfield Courier, July 25, 1878.

Navigation. Henry Pruden and O. J. Palmer started from Salt City down the Arkansas River with 700 bushels of wheat in their boat last week Wednesday. The farmers in that vicinity intend to ship their wheat in that way. David Maricle says he intends to ship the proceeds of his 700 acres of wheat on flat boats.

[SALT CITY, SUMNER COUNTY, CORRESPONDENT: “RUDY.”]

Winfield Courier, February 6, 1879.

Already calculations are being made of the time that will be saved in hauling the crops to Winfield and Arkansas City instead of Wichita, and a determination formed to use the difference in making permanent improvements on the land. This alone will be a great addition to the county. There are several persons in this part of the township who have sold land within the past few days, and at better prices than formerly, allowing to the outlook of the near future.

Henry Pruden will engage in business at Arkansas City and Pawnee Agency. He leaves his farm for the present, and will sell a large amount of farming implements and stock on February 26th. We are sorry to lose Hank from among us for the present. He can scarcely afford to leave 480 acres of such land as his is without having almost daily oversight of it.

[SALT CITY, SUMNER COUNTY, CORRESPONDENT: “RUDY.”]

Winfield Courier, February 13, 1879.

SALT CITY, KS., Feb. 11, 1879.

Henry Pruden has sold considerable of his stock and has rented his farm to Mr. Rice for a term of three years. Mr. McCommon, brother-in-law of Mr. Platter, has arrived and will succeed Mr. Thompson in command of the Platter farm. Mr. Berkey, “our merchant,” has so far recovered from his illness as to be able to visit the metropolis today.

Excerpts...

Winfield Courier, March 27, 1879.

NAVIGATION OF THE UPPER ARKANSAS RIVER.

The question of utilizing the vast, though ever-changing current of water, known as the Upper Arkansas River, flowing through our State from west to south-east, and making it the highway to a southern market, has been a living subject with the enterprising agricultural people of Cowley, Sumner, Sedgwick, and those counties lying along and contiguous thereto, ever since the first settlement of that fertile valley in 1870. Owing to their remote distance from a railroad or a market, and the consequent cost of transporting the vast surplus of wheat raised in Cowley and Sumner, this matter has been of vital interest to the people living within their borders. The subject has been discussed in the field and in the grange; has been the slogan of the country politician and the shibboleth of the farmers. It has been resolved upon by conventions, petitioned for by representatives and memorialized by our State Legislature until Congress has taken the matter under consideration, and appointed a commission of competent engineers to personally visit, examine, and report on the feasibility of opening up the stream for navigation, from some point near the terminus of the Wichita branch of the Santa Fe railroad to Little Rock, Arkansas.

In view of these facts, a brief account of the local and individual efforts to solve the problem will doubtless be of interest. During the fall of 1872, A. W. [W. M.] Berkey and S. C. Winton, of Cowley County, built a small flatboat at Arkansas City, loaded it with flour, and started down the river, bound for Little Rock. While they may not have had the “unexplored wildness” that lay between De Soto and the dream of his ambition or the dangers that beset Coronado in his march of disappointment through undiscovered Kansas to encounter, yet four hundred and fifty miles of an unknown river, guarded by a semi-barbarous people who have no particular good feeling towards a frontiersman, lay between them and civilization, presented anything but a cheerful outlook for this pioneer voyage. The trip was made, however, without adventure, and in a reasonable length of time. The produce disposed of, the navigators returned overland to Arkansas City, and reported a fair depth of water and a lively current from the State line to Fort Gibson.

On the strength of this report, a joint stock company was immediately organized, and an agent appointed to proceed at once to the Ohio River and purchase a suitable steamer to ply between the points named. A light draught wharf packet was procured, and a point known as Webbers’ Falls, between Little Rock and Fort Gibson, reached on her upward trip. Here it was found that her engines were of insufficient power to stem the current, so she was taken back to Little Rock, and there sold at a loss to her owners of twenty-five hundred dollars.

This failure temporarily dampened the ardor of even the enthusiastic commercial path-finders, and nothing further was attempted until the summer of 1878, when Messrs. W. H. Speers and Amos Walton, two leading public spirited citizens of the county, equipped a “ferry-flat” with a 10 horse-power threshing machine engine, and by several trips up and down the river for a distance of 60 miles from Arkansas City, demonstrated beyond a doubt that a steamer could be successfully propelled on the Arkansas River at any season of the year. The flat was fifty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and drew ten inches of water. This novel little craft visited Grouse Creek, the Walnut River, Salt City, the Kaw Indian Agency, Oxford, and other points along the river, and attracted crowds of people wherever it went. At Oxford a public reception was tendered its officers and crew! These experimental trips were all made while the river was at its lowest stage, and prior to the annual “June rise.”

Soon after the “Aunt Sally” returned South, Henry and Albert Pruden and O. J. Palmer, of Salt City, Sumner County, started for Little Rock with a “ferry-flat” loaded with seven hundred bushels of wheat. The wheat was sold at a good round figure, and the gentlemen returned, reporting a successful trip and a good stage of water.

Arkansas City Traveler, April 2, 1879.

The ferry boat built here for the Pawnee Agency started from the bridge yesterday for the Pawnee crossing, under command of Capt. H. B. Pruden. She was loaded with 12,000 lbs. of potatoes.

Arkansas City Traveler, August 27, 1879.

Mr. David Pruden and wife return to their Dayton home the first of next week.

Arkansas City Traveler, October 29, 1879.

Al. Pruden and family have gone to Dayton, Ohio, on a visit to the old people. They will be absent about six weeks. Al. is one of the old settlers in this county, and has friends wherever he is known.

Arkansas City Traveler, March 30, 1881.

A. Pruden, Jr., offers his farm and residence for sale. Farm situated on the Arkansas River five miles from railroad depot at Arkansas City. One quarter section, 160 acres; one quarter section, 160 acres; one quarter section, 115½ acres. Will sell all above for $7,500; one-third cash, balance to suit purchaser. Title perfect. Address Alfred Pruden, Jr., Dayton, Ohio.

Arkansas City Traveler, May 11, 1881.

FOR SALE: A No. 1 Haines Header, with header boxes, in good running order; also a John Deere gang plow, with breaking attachments, in good order. A good chance for a cash customer or bankable paper. Inquire at my farm, one mile east of Salt City. H. B. PRUDEN.

Winfield Courier, November 3, 1881.

A railroad company has been organized to build a road from Arkansas City to Geuda Springs and westward. The directors are H. B. Pruden of Ohio, J. W. Devoire, of Indiana, W. P. Hackney, James Huey, Maj. O’Grady, C. R. Mitchell, and W. M. Berkey, of Cowley County. The capital stock is $250,000 in shares of $100 each.

Arkansas City Traveler, January 18, 1882.

James Fair, near Salt City, began with almost nothing a few years ago, and now owns the Henry Pruden farm. He manages to make about a thousand a year raising hogs.

Arkansas City Traveler, March 15, 1882.

Item from Courier.

Henry B. Pruden sold his farm of 160 acres in Creswell Township to James Fair for $4,000.

Arkansas City Traveler, May 3, 1882.

Our old friend, A. Pruden, Jr., is now running a large notion store at Dayton, Ohio, at least so says several flaming posters that have reached us by mail. Success to you, Al.

[Note: Henry B. Pruden was an early citizen of Bolton township, Cowley County. In 1874 it was noted that he was 26 years old, lived near Salt City, and had come from Ohio.]