DR. W. F. STANDIFORD.

Geuda Springs, Kansas.

FROM THE NEWSPAPERS.

Arkansas City Traveler, September 21, 1881.

Dr. Standiford, of Westville, Indiana, arrived in town several days since, and has been looking after landed interests hereabouts. The Doctor came specially to investigate the Geuda Springs, and ascertain if they really deserved the notoriety they are rapidly gaining through-out the East as a health resort. Of course the result is satisfactory, the efficiency of the waters as a curative, coupled with proper medical treatment, will almost make the old young again. As a proof of the above, Dr. Standiford contemplates the erection of a Sanitarium, which will be of great benefit to invalids, as well as a paying investment for the projector and proprietor.

Arkansas City Traveler, September 28, 1881.

Dr. Standiford has about completed arrangements for the erection of a 24 x 46 Sanitarium fitted up with all necessary appliances for using the mineral waters of the Geuda Springs to the best advantage, as well as the general treatment of chronic invalids. The Doctor is fully competent in every way to push this enterprise to a successful completion, and we look for him to add fresh laurels to his own reputation as well as add new victories to the long list of chronic ills subdued by the curative agency of Geuda water.

Arkansas City Traveler, October 5, 1881.

ERRATUM. In speaking last week of the Sanitarium to be erected forthwith by Dr. Standiford, at the Geuda Springs, we made a misstatement as to the dimensions of the proposed structure, inasmuch as we did not give the full measurement by fully one half. The following are the facts, as we learn them from the Doctor himself.

“The Sanitarium, when completed, and it will be pushed to completion as rapidly as possible, will be thirty-six by forty-eight feet, three stories in height, and will be fitted throughout with all the medical appliances, baths, and everything that will in any way tend to enhance its success.”

Arkansas City Traveler, October 5, 1881.

DR. W. F. STANDIFORD, who has had ten year’s experience in the treatment of chronic diseases, will make his headquarters at the City Hotel, in Arkansas City, until his Sanitarium is completed at Geuda Springs. He will be pleased to consult and advise any who wish to visit the Springs for treatment.

Arkansas City Traveler, October 12, 1881.

Dr. Standiford informs us that his Sanatarium will be constructed entirely of stone, and he expects to have it completed just as soon as energy and money can accomplish it. Good.

Cowley County Courant, December 29, 1881.

Dr. W. R. Davis, of Winfield, will, if Dr. Standiford does not put in an appearance soon, complete and take charge of the sanitarium at Salt City. Arkansas City Democrat.

[SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE KANSAS CITY TIMES: ARKANSAS CITY.]

Arkansas City Traveler, November 9, 1881. Editorial Page.

A Booming Burg.

[Special Correspondence, Kansas City Times.]

ARKANSAS CITY, KANS., Oct. 31. Although this is one of the frontier and border towns of Kansas, and possesses in a marked degree the characteristic stir and bustle of such places, it, nevertheless, is free from a number of their distinguishing peculiarities. The yell of the festive cowboy is here but seldom heard, and such scenes as that which occurred at Hunnewell recently, in which over three shots were exchanged and a young lady shot dead, have never yet been witnessed at this place. It has the make-up of an interior town, with all the push and enterprise and the business aspect of the cattle shipping points.

Arkansas City is, in fact, a supply point for all the vast country lying south and inhabited by the semi-civilized red man. Wagon trains, whose teams are driven by Indians, arrive here, load and depart almost daily. Some of them number thirty or forty teams and drivers. There are several extensive outfitting stores in this place, which furnish all these trains with merchandise and supplies, they being taken to the different agencies and there distributed by the Indian agents. The government has issued to these indolent wretches wagons, teams, harness, plows, reapers, threshers, drills, harrows, and in fact the most complete and improved farm machinery for their use, with the hope that it will induce them to become industrious and earn their own livelihood by their own exertion and labor. This has been the policy of the government for a number of years, and it is astonishing what a vast number of teams and wagons and agricultural implements they are capable of utilizing, and what tedious and uncertain progress they make toward proficiency in the art of agriculture or labors of diligence or industry.

Arkansas City is completely surrounded by one of the finest and best countries in the State of Kansas, and it is safe to say that it embraces some of the richest farming land lying outdoors. There has never yet been a failure of crops in this locality. This section, while crops were cut short by the drought in other locations, corn and wheat in the valley of the Walnut and Arkansas have made full yields, averaging thirty-five or forty bushels of the former and from fifteen to twenty bushels of the latter to the acre. For this reason the town and surrounding country are prosperous, and, indeed, I have seen no town in Kansas this fall which has shown such indubitable evidences of prosperity and improvement.

Within a few miles of Arkansas City are the Geuda Mineral Springs, which are of themselves the greatest natural curiosity of the west, and well deserve more than the passing notice which I am able to give them. They are seven in number, all situated within an area of forty feet square, each being different from the other, and each being very strongly impregnated. Nor are the professional services of a chemist necessary in order to discern the difference, as it is easily manifested by the taste. One is strongly impregnated with chloride of sodium and sulphur, another with sodium and iron, and another with magnesia, with no taste of sodium distinguishable. These waters are very strongly impregnated, only one of them being in any manner mild in taste, and it closely resembles that of the Cusenberry Springs.

For years these springs have been almost unknown except to a few, although it is said that the Indians well knew of their existence and their vast curative powers, and even now frequently visit them and partake of their waters, as the line of the Indian Territory is but a few miles from where they are situated. It is from the Indian dialect that the name is derived, “Geuda” meaning “healing waters.”

A few months ago the spot from whence issued these remarkable waters was grown over with a dense mass of grass and bulrushes, but now it has been cleared off and each spring tubed and the ground laid with flag stones.

Your correspondent visited this singular place, and, with a skeptical exactitude, tasted and retested the waters which flowed from each, and left full convinced that they were something very unusual. Their curative powers have already been thoroughly tested, and they have been pronounced by eminent chemists the best shown. The people living in the vicinity have tried them, and they have already worked surprising cures. Large quantities of these waters are taken away daily to all parts of the vicinity, some of it going as far as Wichita and Winfield.

Even while your correspondent was at the springs a wagon drove up and loaded for Winfield, and a number of persons came in carriages and on horseback to examine the springs or to drink of the waters, which are given away without money and without price. The land upon which the springs are situated is owned by Hon. Robert Mitchell, of Arkansas City, who has made arrangements with Dr. W. F. Standiford, of Indiana, to have a large Sanitarium erected and operated at the springs, and the building will be completed in a short time. A commodious bath house has already been erected just below the springs where wonderful cures are performed almost daily. Altogether it is safe to say that these springs, each so close to the other and each so very different from the other, are really the wonder of the day and age. Another peculiarity of these springs are that they come straight up from below. Eight inch water pipes sixteen feet long are sunk down into the earth and from these the waters flow. Two of these pipes are within eighteen inches of each other, and yet the water from each is entirely different and very strong. They are a veritable curiosity and well worth a trip to see.

Arkansas City, though having but a population of less than 2,000, nevertheless has a first class system of water works by which water is supplied to all parts of the town and to all parts of the largest and highest buildings. Water mains are laid through the main street running lengthwise of the town, with side mains running transversely from the same.

Another very commendable enterprise in which the town is interested is the digging of a canal or water course from the Arkansas to the Walnut River. The town lies several miles above the confluence of these streams and the canal is cut just below town from one stream to the other. It is three and a half miles long and twenty feet wide and secures a water fall of twenty feet in that distance. This canal will be so arranged that it will accommodate and supply ten or twelve first class water power privileges, with a large amount of water to spare for other purposes. The enterprise is handled by a joint stock company, and will necessitate an outlay of about $60,000. The work has been in progress all summer and will be completed in a few weeks.

Arkansas City certainly has no reason to be ashamed of the progress she has made during the past year. No town in the State has made a more healthy or permanent growth in the past, nor has brighter prospects for the future. DE VERA.

Arkansas City Traveler, November 16, 1881.

Dr. Standiford started for Chicago last Thursday to purchase lumber, etc., for the Sanitarium at Geuda Springs. The stonework is about completed and the work will be pushed forward as rapidly as possible. At present, the estimated cost of the structure will exceed $5,000.

[GEUDA GOSSIP.]

Arkansas City Traveler, November 30, 1881.

The air of business that this locality is assuming daily increases with the growing population and erection of buildings of every description. The following will give some idea of the rate with which improvements on the new town site are being prosecuted.

Mr. Geo. A. Cutler has nearly completed a large and commodious building to be occupied as a drug store.

Mr. James Steiner has in course of erection a building for a restaurant, boarding house, and billiard hall.

Dr. Perry has completed two of the ten cottages he proposes to erect for rent and is pushing the work forward on the balance.

Mr. J. E. Conklin, of Winfield, is erecting a neat summer residence.

Mr. G. B. Green has completed a very neat and commodious residence.

Dr. Standiford has a force of hands busily at work excavating for the foundations of his Sanitarium.

Mr. Banister has in course of erection a residence building.

The Messrs. Axley are putting up a structure 50 x 60 feet to be used for a livery and feed stable.

Hon. C. R. Mitchell has over fifty cords of stone on the ground with which he proposes to erect a business house and residence in the near future.

[Note: Above entry about Dr. Standiford was the last one found. MAW]