History of Atchison County, Kansas. Sheffield Ingalls

hearing of it occasionally and finally came up with it in sight of Arrow Rock. The boat had grounded on a bar and a man was in possession, claiming salvage. Dr. Challiss caught the man off the boat, took possession and settled with him for $25.00. A story was circulated that there had been small-pox on the boat and it narrowly escaped burning at the hands of the people living in the vicinity. Dr. Challiss went on down the river and met his family at St. Louis. When the steamer on which they were passengers reached Arrow Rock, the captain was induced to pull the ferry off the sand bar, and within four days it arrived in Atchison.

      This boat was named the “Ida” for Dr. Challiss’ oldest daughter, who became the wife of John A. Martin, editor of the Atchison Champion, colonel of the Eighth Kansas regiment and governor of the State two terms. The “Ida” was brought up the river by George Million and Granville Morrow, pilots, and John Cafferty, engineer. George Million was the captain when it began making regular trips as a ferry, receiving originally $50.00 per month. During the last years of his service he received $125.00 a month. The ferry boat business was very profitable and $100.00 per day was no unusual income. In 1860 Dr. Challiss built a larger ferry at Brownsville, Penn., and called it the “J. G. Morrow.” When it arrived at Atchison the Government pressed it into service and sent it to Yankton with Indian supplies. Bill Reed was pilot and Dr. Challiss, captain. A quick trip was made to within seventy miles of Yankton where the pilot ran the boat into a snag and sank it. The boat cost $25,000.00 and nothing was saved but the machinery. This was afterwards placed in the ferry “S. C. Pomeroy,” which was operated here until the bridge was completed in 1877. After this the “S. C. Pomeroy was taken to Kansas City, where it sank during a storm. S. C. Pomeroy owned a one-fourth interest in the “J. G. Morrow” and “S. C. Pomeroy” and the wreck of the “Morrow” cost him $5,000.00.

      The “Ida” was taken to Leavenworth on the completion of the bridge and was in service there many years.

      In the early days Dr. Challiss was a Free State man and for years he had in his possession a letter warning him to leave the country, which was written during the exciting period before the war. Dr. Challiss remained active in the affairs of the town for many years but practiced his profession only spasmodically. He died in Dayton, Ohio, at the home of his daughter, on April 23, 1909.

GEORGE SCARBOROUGH.

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      George Scarborough was one of the most romantic characters that ever lived in Atchison county. Influenced by his niece’s description of Kansas, he came to Sumner in 1859 and purchased a tract of land now owned by E. W. Howe and known as Potato Hill. The location is probably the finest on the Missouri river. The farm lies on top of the bluff, and Scarborough’s house was built near the river. He was well fitted to enjoy the life of elegant leisure and seclusion, which he did. Early in life he went to Kentucky from Connecticut and taught school. While there he married the daughter of a congressman named Triplett. The wife died a year later, and Scarborough came into possession of considerable money. After that he adopted a literary and scientific life and spent much of his time abroad, where he collected many pictures and other art treasures. These were displayed in his home below Sumner. Scarborough was a botanist, and made a complete collection of the flora of this section, which he sent to the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington. One of his discoveries was that Atchison county had eleven varieties of the oak. Scarborough was one of the original founders of the First National Bank of this city, furnishing most of the original capital.

      In 1869 he went to Vineland, N. J., where he married a girl of twenty-three, although he was nearly seventy. His wife died within a year, in child birth, under precisely the same circumstances as his first wife. Scarborough died in 1883, in his old home in Connecticut, in absolute poverty, at the age of eighty-four. He is spoken of as one of the most elegant gentlemen who distinguished the early days.

SAMUEL HOLLISTER.

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      Samuel Hollister was one of the original settlers of Sumner. He landed at Leavenworth May 1, 1857, coming by boat from Jefferson City. Two weeks later he met a number of the members of the Sumner Town Company who were looking for somebody to go to Sumner to build a hotel. Having been a contractor and builder in his old home in New Jersey, Mr. Hollister accompanied the men to Sumner, which then consisted of a claim cabin, used as a hotel, and four frame houses in course of construction. The material for the frame houses had been brought from Cincinnati, ready framed, and when completed were 16×24, containing two rooms each. Mr. Hollister took the contract to build the Baker House, which contained three rooms on the ground floor. The half story above was all in one room, where the guests slept. The frames for the Baker House were hewn out in the timber adjoining the town; the weather boarding and shingles were shipped up the river. The hotel was completed in the summer of 1857, and was operated by Hood Baker, a cousin of Capt. David Baker, for many years a prominent citizen of Atchison.

      In the fall of the same year Mr. Hollister began work on the Sumner House, the contract price being $16,000.00. The brick used were made on the ground. The lumber came by boat from Pittsburgh, Penn. This hotel was completed in the summer of the following year. It was built by the town company, which owed Mr. Hollister $3,000.00 at the time of his death, a few years ago.

      Mr. Hollister lived in Sumner twelve years, vigorously fighting Atchison. In the fall of 1858 he built a mill, in company with Al Barber, later adding a gristmill, which was the second built in the county, the first having been built in Atchison, by William Bowman. Mr. Hollister went down the river in a boat in January, 1859, and when he reached his old home in the Catskill mountains, he crossed the Hudson river on the ice. During this trip east he was married to Miss Harriet Carroll, a lineal descendant of Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His wife returned with him to Sumner, and they afterwards moved to Atchison, where they lived for many years. Mr. Hollister died March 28, 1910.

JOHN TAYLOR.

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      John Taylor, who for many years lived on a farm immediately south of the State Orphans’ Home, was a resident of Missouri, a mile and a quarter above East Atchison in 1844, ten years before Kansas was opened for settlement. His father, Joseph Taylor, came to the Platte Purchase in 1838, from Pennsylvania, settling near Weston. At that time most of the best claims were taken. John Taylor’s recollection was that the very earliest settler in that vicinity was in 1837. Joseph Taylor did not secure a very good claim, and afterward removed to Andrew county, finally locating a mile above East Atchison, in 1844. John Taylor said that George Million was living on the present site of East Atchison when his father’s family settled in the bottom. It was Mr. Taylor’s opinion that George Million settled in East Atchison in 1842, and that he did not start his ferry until 1850. In the spring of that year John Taylor crossed the river on George Million’s flat-boat ferry, and went to California, in company with his brother, Joe. There was no wagon road running west from Atchison at that time. John and Joe Taylor mined in California for eighteen months, never making over $20.00 per day, and usually only $5.00. They returned home by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, and John Taylor got the small-pox at Glascow, Mo., which did not break out on him until he reached East Atchison. This was supposed to be the first case of small-pox in this section of the country. All the other members of the family got it, and the wife of Jim Stultz, who came in to help his mother, also got it. Their physician was a Doctor Ankrom, who lived in the Narrows, near Rushville, and he got it, too. This was in the winter of 1851 and 1852. In September, 1854, ten years after settling in East Atchison, Mr. Taylor came to this side of the river. When he arrived Ladd Yocum was running a hotel in a tent; there was nothing else on the town site. Late in the fall George T. Challiss completed his store, which was the first building of any kind in Atchison, according to Mr. Taylor. He says that George Million did not erect his claim shanty until the following year.

      Mr.