History of Atchison County, Kansas. Sheffield Ingalls

supply the immediate population, but over 60,000 people in Kansas faced starvation in the fall of 1860. Thirty thousand settlers left the Territory for their old homes, from which they came, abandoning their claims and all hope of success in Kansas. An endless procession crossed the border from day to day. About 70,000 inhabitants remained, of whom it was estimated 40,000 were able to go through the winter. As soon as the news of this situation reached the East, movements were inaugurated for the relief of the sufferers in Kansas. S. C. Pomeroy was appointed general agent of northern Kansas. He did much to raise liberal contributions in New York, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, and the contributions were all sent to Atchison, from which place they were distributed to the different counties of the State. The total receipts of provisions for distribution up to March 15, 1861, were 8,090,951 pounds, and the total distribution at Atchison, exclusive of branch depots, was 6,736,424 pounds. In spite of all of this assistance over 30,000 settlers in Kansas that year suffered privation and almost starvation.

      It was during this frightful travail that Kansas as a State was born. On January 21, 1861, Jefferson Davis and a number of other southern senators left the United States Senate and on that day the bill for the admission of Kansas under the Wyandotte constitution, which had been laid before the House of Representatives in February, 1860, was called up by W. H. Seward, and passed the Senate by a vote of thirty-six yeas to sixteen nays. One week later the bill came up in the House on motion of Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, who introduced the first bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union, and while the motion was out of the regular order, it was passed by a vote of 119 yeas to forty-two nays. On January 29 the bill was signed by President Buchanan, and free Kansas joined the Union.

      The following are the names of the city officials of Atchison March 1, 1916: Dr. C. C. Finney, mayor; Victor L. King, city clerk; Walter E. Brown, city attorney; C. A. Wright, city treasurer; Frank S. Altman, city engineer; D. S. Beatty, police judge; William H. Coleman, chief of police; John Compton, fire marshal; Jerome Van Dyke, street commissioner; Owen P. Grady, meat inspector and license collector; Fred Stutz, sanitary sergeant; Frank J. Roth, building commissioner; John Compton, purchasing agent; Dr. T. E. Horner, city physician. Councilmen: Louis Weinman, president; first ward, Louis Weinman, F. F. Bracke; second ward, Joseph Schott, C. A. Brown; third ward, H. M. Ernst, John R. Schmitt; fourth ward, W. C. Linville, Fred Snyder; fifth ward, Fay Kested, Walter North.

CHAPTER VII.

       TOWNS, PAST AND PRESENT.

       Table of Contents

      SUMNER, ITS RISE AND FALL—OCENA—LANCASTER—FORT WILLIAM—ARRINGTON—MUSCOTAH—EFFINGHAM—HURON—OLD MARTINSBURG—BUNKER HILL—LOCUST GROVE—HELENA—CAYUGA—KENNEKUK—KAPIOMA—MASHENAH—ST. NICHOLAS—CONCORD—PARNELL—SHANNON—ELMWOOD—CUMMINGSVILLE—EDEN POSTOFFICE—POTTER—MOUNT PLEASANT—LEWIS’ POINT—FARLEY’S FERRY.

      One of the most interesting subjects for the local historian is the rise and fall of town companies and towns, within the confines of Atchison county. Perhaps no county in the State, or for that matter, no county in the United States, has been immune from the visitations of town boomers. It is difficult in this enterprising age, with all the knowledge that we now have at hand, to understand how it was possible for anybody, though he was ever so enthusiastic, to conceive the idea that there was any future for many of the “towns” that were born in Atchison county in the early days. Yet, it is found that there was in the breasts of many promoters a feeling that Atchison county offered unlimited possibilities for the establishment and growth of towns and cities. One need only search the records on file in the office of the register of deeds in this county to discover numerous certified plats of towns which were born to blush unseen and waste their fragrance on the desert air. In some instances the records are quite complete and authentic, and contain much information with reference to the origin, growth and final decay of these nascent municipalities. In other cases nothing has come down to posterity, save the merest fragmentary data, of which the plat, containing the name of the town and of its organizer, its location and the number of blocks, streets and alleys, constitute the major part.

      Reference has heretofore been made to the founding and the organization of the city of Atchison, which became and now remains the county seat of Atchison county. The city played such an important part in the early history of the county that its story has been woven into the general fabric of this history, and therefore further reference to the city of Atchison will not be made in this chapter.

SUMNER.

       Table of Contents

      Perhaps the most important, although not the oldest, town established in Atchison county outside of the city of Atchison was Sumner. A peculiar aroma of legendary glory still clings to this old town, which was located three miles below Atchison, on the Missouri river.

      Its founder was John P. Wheeler, a young man who came to the Territory when about twenty-one years of age, and who has been described as “a red-headed, blue-eyed, consumptive, slim, freckled enthusiast from Massachusetts.”

      Atchison at this time was a strong pro-slavery town, and no abolitionist was a welcome settler in her midst. For this reason Sumner sprang into existence. It was a dream of its founder to make Sumner an important forwarding point, one of its claims being the fact that it was the most westerly of any of the Missouri river towns in Kansas.

      In 1856 the site was surveyed and platted, and the name “Sumner” given the new town, in honor of George Sumner, one of the original stockholders, and not for his brother, the Hon. Charles Sumner, United States senator, of Massachusetts, as many people suppose.

      To bring Sumner before the public Mr. Wheeler engaged an artist named Albert Conant to come out and make a drawing of it, and this was later taken to Cincinnati, and a colored lithograph made from it, which was widely circulated. From copies of this lithograph still extant it must be admitted that the artist did not slight the town in any particular.

      In the fall of 1857 the Sumner Town Company began the erection of a large brick hotel. Samuel Hollister had the contract, his bid being $16,000. The brick used in the construction were made on the ground, and the lumber used in the construction work came by steamboat from Pittsburgh, Pa. The hotel was completed in the summer of 1858, and at last accounts the town company still owed Mr. Hollister $3,000. Some years later the brick used in the hotel were gathered and cleaned and hauled to Atchison and used for the construction of a building owned by the late John J. Ingalls, located at 108–110 South Fourth street.

      In the fall of 1857 Cone Brothers (John P. and D. D.) brought a printing outfit to Kansas, and were induced to locate in Sumner, where they shortly begun the publication of The Sumner Gazette, the first issue of which appeared on September 12. During the political canvass that fall they also issued a daily. The Gazette was issued until 1861 when it suspended, its publishers believing that it was the only paper in Kansas that outlived the town in which it started.

      Among those engaged in business in Sumner on October 1, 1857, the Daily Gazette shows the following:

      John P. Wheeler, attorney and counsellor at law, commissioner of deeds, dealer in real estate, etc.

      Kahn & Fassler, general store, on Front street, between Washington avenue and Chestnut street.

      Mayer & Rohrmann, carpenters and builders.

      Barnard & Wheeler, proprietors of the Sumner Brick Yard.

      Wm. M. Reed, contractor, Atchison and Sumner.

      John Armor, steam saw mill, in the city.

      Butcher & Brothers, general store on Front street, between Washington avenue and Olive street.

      Allen Green, painter and glazier.

      S. J. Bennett, boot and shoe store, corner of Washington avenue and Fourth street.

      Arthur