|
| Henry and Frank Root Letters Part One | Part Two | Part Three |
Affairs in Kansas
Fine Prospects for the Farmers – A Wellsboro Man investing in a Farm – The New Silver Field in Colorado – Politics – Pomeroy and York – Railroad Extortion – A New Newspaper Venture – Early Fruits and Vegetables.
Atchison, June 10, 1876
My long delay in writing no doubt will cause many of your readers to think your correspondent has taken up his abode in the Black Hills, or has gone to the famous San Juan country in southern Colorado. But the heading of this letter will convince all that I have not got the “fever” strong enough yet to induce me to leave a situation here for the uncertainties of those regions. The fact of it is, with the thermometer ranging all the way from 70 to 95 degrees in the shade, it would be an unpleasant duty for any one to sit down and write a newspaper letter. Hence my delay. Such weather as we are now having could not suit the farmers better, as the spring was so wet that nearly all kinds of outdoor farm work was delayed. We are now having occasional showers when most needed, and everything indicates that this year will be the most prosperous one Kansas has ever seen. I have now been here almost twelve years, and I have never known farmers to be more enthusiastic and hopeful over their prospects. For the past two years grasshoppers, chinch bugs, and potato bugs almost ruined the crops, but I have yet to hear this year of a farmer speaking discouragingly of his prospects. This is true not only of this section of the State, but from all parts of Kansas the encouraging news comes that the farmers never have seen more hopeful prospects of abundant crops.
Sanford Boyden, a resident of Wellsboro, spent three days in this city last week. He was on his way back from the Arkansas valley, where he had been to secure a farm of 360 acres, which he claims to be as good land as can be found anywhere, and he ought to know what good farming land is. He informs me that he never saw prettier land anywhere than is to be found in that valley. He was perfectly delighted with the country through which the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road passed, and says he never saw more beautiful growing crops in his life. Wheat is almost ready to be cut, and some is up ten and twelve inches. He confirms all that your correspondent has ever said about these lands, and says I did not begin to tell half of their real worth. – The immigration to this valley, he says, is large, and generally all those who go there secure them homes. No railroad in the country offers better inducements to the settlers along its line than the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Mr. Boyden was well pleased with Atchison, although he don’t think he could like the place on account of the many “elevations” surrounding it. I told him to give the city a favorable mention when he returned home, and he said he would. – James English came out with him, but forgot he had any friends in Atchison, and returned home by way of Kansas City.
Now that the Black Hills country has turned out to be a humbug, the precious metal hunters are turning their attention to the new discovery recently made in the San Juan country. Less than five years ago rich mineral deposits of gold and silver were discovered, and but recently have they been worked to advantage. Eastern capitalists have quite recently been shipping ponderous quartz-crushers and other apparatus used in a mining region to these new discoveries in southern Colorado, and it is claimed by men who have heavy investments there and with whom I have conversed, that in a short time these mines will be producing more silver quartz than any yet discovered in the United States. One advantage of these new mines is that they can be worked the year round, as there is not enough snow or cold weather there to cause a suspension of work, as is the case in the Black Hills. Another advantage: there are no Indians in the country, and a person’s scalp is safe there, but not so in the Black Hills. The best route to the San Juan country is via the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe RR to Pueblo; thence via the Denver & Rio Grande RR, and Barlow & Sanderson’s great overland stage line. – The travel through this city to these mines is large and constantly increasing, and several of our own citizens have already started for them. Everybody out this way seems to have more faith in them than in what they term the Black Hills humbug.
Your correspondent was in error in a former letter when he stated that the convention to be held May 24th was to elect delegates to Cincinnati and nominate a State ticket. Only delegates to Cincinnati were chosen. The convention for the nomination of a State ticket will be held on the 16th of August. Everybody is so deeply interested over the Presidential nominations that State politics are entirely ignored, and of all the candidates for the different State offices, not one of them seems to be improving his chances. Ex-Senator Pomeroy is now on his farm 25 miles west of this city, and will undoubtedly stay in the State until after election. Whether he will take any interest in the political campaign in this State this fall is not yet known, but is has been intimated through Democratic sources that he will run for State Senator from his district this fall. I have also seen it stated that York, who exposed Pomeroy in the State House of Representatives four years ago, for bribery, thereby defeating him for the United State Senate, is going to make an open confession that he was hired to blackmail Senator Pomeroy, and that the $7,000, said to have been paid by Pomeroy to York was never paid at all, and was a put-up job by Pomeroy’s enemies for a black-mailing scheme to secure his defeat. No one would believe York if he should make such a statement as this, as the people of this State have seen and heard enough of this man to know that his word can’t be relied on.
Kansas visitors to the Centennial Exhibition are few, and will be fewer yet if the railroads don’t come down on fare somewhere near reasonable figures. The fare from here to Philadelphia and return is an even $57. Last year at this time the roads were selling tickets for the trip for $30. A circus, or theater, or horse show can get less than half rates from the railroads, but the Centennial Exhibition can’t even get half rates. It is an outrage on the people, and the entire press of the State have condemned this action of the railroad managers. It is estimated that the number of people from Kansas alone would number between 15,000 and 20,000 who would visit the Exhibition if the railroads had adopted half rates, as they should have done and could afford to do. It is hoped they will see their error soon, and commence cutting on the rated adopted at Louisville. Many of Pennsylvanians, who have not visited the homes of their childhood for years, are waiting for a further reduction in rates.
The Kansas State building is no doubt one of the Handsomest on the grounds, and the display made by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company will pay all eastern people to look at. It will convince them that Kansas can produce something even in a season of grasshopper devastation. I hope all Wellsboro and Tioga county people will give our Kansas exhibit a good inspection.
Frank Root is again in the newspaper business. This time he is publishing a neat weekly paper in North Topeka, called the Times. Frank says his forte is in the newspaper business, and somehow he can’t keep out of it. He has got a live town to support him in his latest enterprise, and no doubt he will succeed.
Evening amusements for the past month have been strawberry festivals, and they have averaged four a week. I have never known strawberries to be so plenty and co cheap. In fact, the people have had so many of them for the past month that they are getting tired of them, and are patiently waiting for a change to something else. If you ask a person whet he is going to have for dinner or supper, he will tell you strawberry shortcake.
The markets are well supplied with all kinds of “garden truck,” such as lettuce, onions, cucumbers, peas, cabbage, beans, radishes, cherries, etc. Everything is much earlier here than at the East. We have also a fresh fish market every evening, where nearly all kinds of fish can be had, caught from the lake some five miles distant. I often see catfish in market weighing 100 pounds. The fish here are mostly caught in nets, and are alive when brought into market. Eastern people are not deprived of many luxuries here in the West.
The Missouri is rising rapidly. This is what we call the June rise, though no
one expects we shall get the flood we had a year ago, as not near the amount of
snow fell in the mountains. Should there be such a rise as last year, much
damage will be the result all along the river.
H. C. R. [Harry C. Root]
Wellsboro Agitator, 27 March 1877, p2
From Kansas
The Flood of Immigrants – What They Must Expect – The Routes to the Black
Hills – A Grasshopper Law – Where Kansas Office Holders are Raised – Railroad
Building Prospects
Atchison, March 19, 1877
The weather continues beautiful, and the indications are that the spring
will be the earliest we have had for many years. Immigrants are pouring in at a
lively rate, and extra trains, loaded with land seekers, are departing from here
almost daily for the west and southwest. The year 1877 will repay Kansas for the
efforts she made to advertise the State at the Centennial. The people now coming
here are principally from the Eastern States. No less than twenty families, in
one colony, from Altoona, Pa., arrived here one day last week; and they say they
are the vanguard of an immense army of land seekers from western Pennsylvania.
There is plenty of good land yet to be had in the western and southwestern parts
of the State, and some of it is as good farming land as can be found in any of
the older settled communities. A person settling upon our western prairies must
not hope to hind the benefits of older settled States. There are many who come
here with the expectation of finding everything as convenient as at the homes
they left. – Such people as there Kansas does not want; but those who come with
the intention of staying and making the best of things as they find them, she
gladly welcomes.
I met several gentlemen last fall while visiting in Wellsboro who had been
out here and taken up good farms. The most of them will return this spring; but
one of them in particular told me that there was not a food of land in the whole
State of Kansas he would have, claiming it was good for nothing, always subject
to drought and grasshoppers, and running it down at a fearful rate. I told this
gentleman it was a good thing he did not stay, for just such men as he were an
----- to any community, and such Kansas never wants to see inside her borders.
Land that will raise another ----- crops of wheat, corn, potatoes, etc., as were
harvested last fall and every year when we have no drawbacks [which are no more
common here than in any other State,] ought to be food for something. But some
people are never happy. These we have here now are generally contented, for
Kansas is no place for “croakers.”
Your correspondent E.S.C. is inclined to take me to task for my remarks
concerning the Black Hills. He no doubt has an ax to grind, and hence advocated
what he considered the “best route” to the Hills – that by way of Sioux City,
Springfield, etc. As I am not so much interested in the “best route” to the
Hills as E.S.C. seems to be, it is immaterial to me which is the shortest route
to Deadwood. It is a question that cannot be answered to the satisfaction of all
localities. As a matter of fact, travel by either of the routes is not a pastime
and is accompanied by about the same amount of inconvenience, hardship and
expense by one as by the other. Yaukton, Sidney and Cheyenne, the three initial
points of departure from the railroads, have a pecuniary interest in turning the
tide of travel by their own doors, and of course make the best showing they can
of their respective advantages. As soon as travel to the Hills becomes
sufficiently large to make a lively competition between the stage lines and
railroads, the rates of passage will undoubtedly be the same from the east by
all routes. E.S.C. advocated the “Perrie route,” probably for the reason that
his interests are in that direction. It is about the same distance from Chicago
to Yankton as it is from Chicago to Omaha. From Yankton to Fort Perrie it is
over 200 miles by wagon road and 500 miles by river. The Missouri above Yankton
is very crooked and rapid, and it is impossible for a steamer to make the up
trip between the two points in less than six days. Reaching Perrie, the Hills
are still distant some 200 miles, which must be accomplished either on foot or
by wagon. If the traveler choose to go all the way from Yankton by wagon, he
will have some 400 miles overland.
The Cheyenne route is the best known, as well as the longest. Cheyenne is
some 500 miles west of Omaha and 200 miles from Deadwood. But its advantages are
in having a daily United States mail established, a daily stage line, and a
telegraph line to Deadwood. In time the Sidney route will be the most traveled,
as it is nearest Omaha and the Hills, being considerably less than 200 miles
from Deadwood.
E.S.C., from statements he has heard, is inclined to believe the Black Hills
gold fields are no humbug. I have no doubt he has heard many contradictory
reports from there, as he does not advise any Tiogans to go. He is correct in
his assertion when he says that of the thousands who go there probably one-half
will fall short of their expectations. I presume the coming summer will prove
pretty conclusively whether the Black Hills will justify a population of 50,000
people settling there.
In my last letter to the Agitator I mentioned the fact that our Legislature
adjourned without making any provision for the destruction of the grasshoppers.
Just before the adjournment they did pass a bill providing that all male persons
between the ages of twelve and fifty, when ---- by the Road Overseers of their
respective districts, shall meet at certain times and places each day for the
purpose of destroying the young grasshoppers; and any person failing to perform
such work under the provisions of the bill shall be adjudged guilty of a
misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be fined the sum of $3 a day. This is an
excellent bill, and can be made to work successfully. It will be the means of
killing out the “crop” of grasshoppers that are now proving so destructive to
western farming; and if successfully carried out in all the States which they
visit, it will be the means of their entire destruction. The bill does not
provide for any particular method of killing them but the farmers will generally
adopt the course I described in a former letter. – The Legislature could hardly
afford to adjourn without making some provision of this
-------------------------- demanded a strict grasshopper law, and such a one I
think they now have.
The Governor is in receipt of a large number of petitions from different
parts of the State calling on him to issue a proclamation for a day of prayer
that the grasshopper scourge may not again visit us this spring. Some people are
inclined to believe that if the Governor was to fix the time a day or two before
the grasshoppers get their wings ready to fly, the prayers would be as
beneficial.
In State Printer G.W. Martin’s “Directory of the State Government,”
published a short time ago, are many facts of interest. Of the Legislature just
adjourned twenty-five members were from Pennsylvania. – There were seventy-seven
farmers in the body, out of a total of 167. It seems that farmers are generally
more successful in the West than they are in the East. No native Kansan was a
member of either house, and it is said but one or two native Kansans were ever
elected to our Legislature. The State officers and Congressmen are from seven
different States and three foreign countries. The State was admitted in 1861,
and is therefore but sixteen years of age. – There are many other interesting
facts connected with this book but I have only mentioned the above, thinking
they will be of interest to all your readers.
Railroad building in the State this year, judging from the number of
charters filed in the office of the Secretary of State, promises to be more
actively carried on than for the past six or seven years. A number of amendments
to the railroad laws of the State were passed, and the indications are that some
portions of the State heretofore without railroad facilities will take advantage
of the new laws and ----- themselves with the more favored sections of the State
and with the outside world. It may be the roads will all be built on paper, for
it takes money to construct them. Your correspondent predicts the most active
year in every branch of industry ever witnessed in the State.
Two more elevators are to be erected in this city immediately, to
accommodate the increasing demands made upon our grain dealers for storage
facilities. The immense amount of grain lying in store and in the country along
our railroads and adjacent to our city requires the erection of more commodious
elevators than we have at present. The country is full of grain, and there is
such a blockade of it in all the river towns that it is impossible to find cars
enough in which to ship it. In consequence of this a line of barges will soon be
put on the Missouri river to carry the surplus grain to eastern market. That
this arrangement will be of great advantage to shippers of grain there can be no
doubt, as it will bring money into the State that is now lying idle on account
of the grain blockade.
---- H.C.R.
Wellsboro Agitator, 3 July 1877, p2
Agitator Correspondence
From Kansas
The Unprecedented Wet Weather – Its Hopes for effect on the Governor Race
– A Move for an Extra Session of the Legislature – The Fruit Prospects –
Ex-Governor Osborn is Appointed
Atchison, June 11, 1877
There has not been a season during the past five or six years that Kansas
farmers have not has a setback in some way. One year it is the grasshoppers,
another the potato bug, then a drought comes upon them, but this season they are
troubled with too much wet weather. During a residence of almost thirteen years
in this State I have never known so continuous rains before. I do not believe
that for the past month there have been three days at a time when it has not
rained. For two weeks old Sol did not put in his appearance, and the rain came
down continuously all the time.. I need not tell you that many of our people
predicted another deluge, and proposed building another ark for safety. At last
the clouds broke away, and the son shone bright and warm, but only for a day or
two at a time, when it commenced raining again, and has continued at intervals
up to this time –almost the middle of the first summer month.
Farmers are backward about planting, many not yet having the corn in the
ground, and what there was planted before the rains has about all rotted, and
the farmers will have to re-plant. Wheat is looking unusually good, and promises
a fair yield. Many fields are already ripe enough to cut, farmers only waiting
for good weather. It may be that so much wet weather is the best thing that
could happen to the State, as our farmers generally think it will be destructive
to the crop of grasshoppers that have already hatched out, but have done
comparatively no injury as yet to the crops. Others think we could afford to
have some of them left if the weather would become settled and come off clear
and warm, just what all the farmers need now.
The Missouri river is higher now than it has been since 1857, and it is
within eighteen inches of the high water mark of that year. The river is still
rising, and the rise reported at Omaha will make it the highest flood ever known
in the Missouri. It is what is called the annual June rise, commencing in the
latter part of May and continuing all through the month of June. – The roar of
the rushing flood can be heard for a long distance; and at this writing the
levee the whole length of the city is lines with people watching the maddened
torrents as they rush by toward the Gulf. It is a grand sight; but the damage it
is doing will reach far into the millions. The river is full of driftwood, and
hundreds of our people catch enough of it every spring to make firewood to last
them all summer. All along the river, both north and south, the lowlands are
overflowed, and people have had to flee for their lives. But little damage has
been done opposite our city, with the exception of the washing of the banks. The
railroad on the east side of the river, between here and Omaha and south to
Kansas City, is submerged in many places, and no trains have passed over the
road for several days.
There are a good many rumors afloat that a strong pressure will be brought
to bear upon the Governor soon to call an extra session of the Legislature – for
what purpose it is not stated. It is no doubt the work of some scheming
politicians who are desirous of making some money, or rather robbing the
taxpayers of the State. A more gigantic force could not be perpetrated, as the
people of this State are pretty nearly unanimous in favor of biennial sessions
of the Legislature, as witnessed by the overwhelming majority the proposition
received from the voters of the State two years ago. The Governor will not
recognize this “pressure,” as he is in favor of the law now in force, and
willing to give the biennial system a trial. After that, if he thinks the
present law could be bettered, he will no doubt have the people on his side.
Besides, an extra session of the Legislature would cost the State from $40,000
to $50,000, and perhaps would be as barren of important results as its
predecessors have been for the past several years.
The prospects for the apple and peach crops throughout the State were never
better. We have had but two slight frosts, and they were to heavy enough to do
any damage. Fruit raisers are anticipating the largest crop ever gathered in the
State ----- her display of fruits, competing with every State in the Union for
the honor. She can do it again. The grasshoppers four years ago almost ruined
the fruit trees; consequently for the past three years she has raised but little
fruit. I anticipate, she will complete with the world again this fall for the
fine, large fruit. The soil of Kansas is adapted to fruit raising, as has been
proven by some of the oldest and most experienced fruit-raisers in the East. I
see no good reason why several fruit-canning establishments would not be a good
investment in the State. It is hoped some enterprising fruit firm in the East
will accommodate us.
The appointment of Ex-Governor Osborn, of this State, as Minister to Chili
seems to give general satisfaction to all classes of our people. Gov. Osborn was
formerly a Pennsylvanian, residing, I believe, near Meadville. He made a hard
fight last winter for the Senatorship, and was only beaten when the fight
narrowed down to him and the present incumbent, Col. P.B. Plumb. That he will
represent the United State faithfully and honorably in his foreign mission there
can be no doubt.
Notwithstanding the dull times, the very wet weather, the grasshopper scare,
and the hundreds of dire calamities, according to the predictions of the
“croakers,” that Kansas is going to suffer during the summer, the State is
prosperous, especially Atchison. – There are no less than a dozen circuses
traveling in the State. The great Forepaugh and Barnum outfits will show here
the same week, and will doubtless take away several thousands of dollars between
them. There never was a circus in Atchison but that the people turned out in
masse, no matter how big a humbug, it was. I judge money is plenty, or these
shows would not travel as they do.
The churches of this city have all had their strawberry and ice-cream
entertainment’s, netting them from $150 to $300 each. The strawberries are
unusually large and luscious this season, and the market has been full of them
for the past month. They sell all the way from ten to twenty cents a quart.
Our markets are full of string beans, peas, new potatoes, and in fact
everything that can be raised in the garden, every day. All kinds of garden
produce are much earlier than last season.
----H.C.R.
Wellsboro Agitator, July 10, 1877, p2
Agitator Correspondence
Agriculture and Business in Kansas
The Continued Rains in the Missouri Valley – A Western Tornado – The Great Wheat Crop – The Grasshoppers Believed to be Used Up – A Good Prospect for Fruit – Atchison’s Prosperity – Excursion to Colorado – A July Flood – Personal – Murphy Needed West – The Markets
Atchison, July 2, 1877
Heavy rains continue, and some of the hardest wind, rain and hail storms I
ever experienced have occurred since my last letter to the Agitator, in which I
gave your readers some idea of the amount of rain that had fallen during the
latter part of May and the first part of June, of the damage it had already done
to railroads in the way of washing out bridges, culverts, and overflowing tracks
for miles, and of the disaster it would bring upon the farmers if the frequent
rains continued. I learn that the excessive rains have only been general in the
Missouri valley, but that in the interior of the State they have been timely and
beneficial to the farmers. The “oldest inhabitant” cannot remember a season
anywhere when so much rain fell as the people of the Missouri valley have
experienced during the past six weeks.
On Saturday last one of the most destructive tornadoes, accompanied with a
heavy rainstorm, that ever visited the West passed over this section of country,
doing immense damage everywhere it went. The greatest destruction was done in
St. Joseph, where it unroofed some fifteen or twenty houses, leveled several to
the ground, and did considerable other damage which will aggregate thousands of
dollars. The location of Atchison, with its high, rolling prairie on the west,
the immense timber forests on the east, and the high hills on the north and
south, has saved the town from destruction several times, while Kansas City,
Leavenworth, or St. Joseph, one of them, is the victim of every storm that
passes over this section of country.
The wheat harvest has commenced in some localities, and the crop is said to
be the finest that has been harvested for many years. The heads are round and
plump, and the yield will be enormous – running all the way from 25 to 35
bushels per acre. I know of one man having a field of 3,000 acres all sown in
wheat, which he is now harvesting, that will yield him an average of 25 bushels
to the acre, which would make a good-sized fortune for anyone. The wheat crop
will be the largest ever raised in Kansas, and the State will have several
millions of bushels of this cereal to export. A more good-natured set of farmers
I have never met with, and all of them are wearing broad smiles because of the
bounteous crops. – When it was seen that the grasshoppers were going to do no
damage, our farmers went to work and planted double the number of acres they
otherwise would have done, and they are just now reaping their reward in
harvesting a crop of wheat the like of which has never been known here or
elsewhere. I have not heard of a single field that was damaged to the extent of
a dollar’s worth by the grasshoppers or any other pest, although there were
plenty of hopper eggs deposited in the State. But the late and cold rains in the
spring seem to have been a “damper” on them, and the grasshopper commission
appointed by Congress to take observations in all the Western States that were
infested by the locusts give it as their opinion that Kansas need never have any
more fears of locust invasions, as they are confident the severe weather of
early spring pretty generally “wound them up.” If such is the fact, what more
does Kansas need? Nothing at all. There will be such a rush of immigration as
will be astonishing to everybody. The men who are continually howling down
Kansas as the worst cursed State in all the sisterhood of the Union will then
seek other pastures, as they have always been a curse to the State, and will
always be s serious drawback to any community, wherever they may be. If this
grasshopper commission base their theories upon what may in the future prove to
be reliable facts, Kansas in a few years will be the acknowledged leading
agricultural and stock-raising State in the Union. Your readers may think this
is all well enough on paper, but in a few years the reality will correct their
erroneous opinions.
Corn, oats, barley, etc., look fine, and all bid fair to yield abundantly.
Corn is about knee high, and is looking splendidly. All it wants now is for the
rain to slack up a little, and, with a week or two of good weather, the corn
crop is assured. There is an immense amount of old corn yet in the country, and
farmers are determined to hold on to it until new corn begins to arrive in
market.
Fruit prospects are still promising, and the trees are loaded down and out
of all danger of frosts. But I am told that the heavy winds have blown
considerable of it off the trees. By the looks of the trees around here, there
will be any amount of it left.
As evidence of the prosperity of Atchison just at this time, and of the
railroads centering here, work on two large and commodious elevators is about to
be commenced to accommodate the large grain yield that is now being harvested
throughout the State. Another new line of railroad was added to our city today –
the B and M, or the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy – giving the people of this
section of the State the choice of five different through lines to St. Louis and
Chicago. Work on the extension of Atchison’s pet railroad, the Central Branch
Union Pacific, is to be commenced immediately, and pushed through to the rich
and fertile valley of the Republican, the “garden spot of Kansas,” which but a
few years ago was inhabited only by the red skins and buffalo of the plains, but
today contains a population of thousands of tillers of the soil who are making
the wild prairies bud and blossom as the rose. They have long needed a railroad
to ship their surplus products to market, and after waiting patiently so long a
time, they are in a fair way of getting one before autumn passes.
The Kansas editorial excursionists have returned from their sightseeing in
Colorado, and the columns of the weekly papers of last week were burdened with
accounts of the much-enjoyed trip. Judging from what they all say, it must have
been the most profitable as well as the most enjoyable excursion ever made by
the editors of Kansas. There were eighty ladies and gentlemen in the party, and
it is said a happier set of people never visited Colorado. One thing about it,
they paid their own way outside of railroad transportation, and perhaps received
more attention from the people of the Centennial State than they would if they
have been deadheaded. There has been an average of one excursion a week to
Colorado this summer, and I hear of several others that are being organized to
visit that State during the season. It is a wonder to me that there are not more
eastern people visiting Colorado. A more healthful country cannot be found
anywhere, and I do not believe there is any scenery in the world that equals
that of the Rocky Mountains. A person can travel and travel on until he is
weary, but his eyes never get tired of looking at the ever-changing scenery that
is constantly before him. Your correspondent spent a month last summer in the
mountains, and never enjoyed a pleasanter trip anywhere. A person could and
should spend two months there, and might then return disappointed because he
hadn’t time to see more. Why don’t you Pennsylvania editors advocate an
excursion to Colorado? I am certain that what could be seen would more than
repay the expense attending one. Your correspondent regretted very much that he
was not one of those who composed the late editorial excursion.
The “Glorious Fourth” will be celebrated in all the larger cities and towns
of the State in true American style. Here in Atchison extensive preparations are
being made to make it a grand, glorious Fourth.
The river is rising rapidly again, and promises a flood as high as that of a
month ago. It is seldom we get three floods in the muddy Missouri in one season,
but such is the case this year.
John C. Root, an old “typo” in the office of the Champion and who is well
known by everybody in Wellsboro and Tioga county, left on Wednesday last for a
few weeks’ trip visiting his old home in Wellsboro. It is hoped the “boys” will
take good care of him while there. He has not been home for ten years.
Last week’s Agitator makes mention that some of the “enthusiastic” Tioga
boys who have recently returned from the Black Hills disgusted. While your
Kansas correspondent acknowledged that gold was there, he has never advised
anybody to go, as has “E.S.C.,” of Springfield, Dakota, who thought there was
gold enough there for all who might go. It those who returned had only headed
toward southern Colorado, and struck the famous San Juan silver district, where
there is plenty of room for all who care to go, they would have been much better
off.
It is hoped that Mr. Francis Murphy, your great temperance lecturer, can be
persuaded to come West. It he should ever come to Atchison he would have a good
field to work in; but when the pledges should be circulated for signatures no
doubt he would hind a good many differences of opinion. I am glad to hear he is
doing such noble work for the cause of temperance in northern Pennsylvania.
The markets are well supplied with garden truck, such as new potatoes,
cabbage, peas, beans, cucumbers, etc. Strawberries are entirely out of market,
but red and black raspberries and cherries and currants have taken their place.
----H.C.R.
Wellsboro Agitator, 2 July 1878
Agitator Correspondence
Growth and Prosperity of Kansas
The Glorious Prospects of the State – Heavy Immigration this Year – A
Great Wheat Crop – No Grasshoppers this Year – State Politics – An Editorial
Excursion – The Mischievous Missouri – Personal
Atchison, June 20, 1878
Many of my friends who are readers of the Agitator doubtless wonder what has
become of “H.C.R.” I have been slow in writing for some time past for several
reasons, the principal one being that the Agitator can fill its valuable columns
with much more interesting news than I can furnish from this far-off country;
and then, after a person has worked hard all the week he finds but little spare
time to write. But I have many good and true friends still in Wellsboro who have
friends or relatives here, and are doubtless well pleased whenever they can hear
or read any good of Kansas.
After thirteen years’ residence in the State I have more faith than ever
that it is destined to be the leading State of the Union. I believe all I have
ever said in favor of it, and think its values is not half known yet. – But year
by year the eastern people are having more confidence in our great and glorious
State, in consequence of which, it is estimated they have contributed nearly
100,000 to our population since last fall. Every State is represented in this
immigration. Pennsylvania, I believe, having contributed more to our population
during the past year than any other one State. The majority of new-comers are
old and experienced farmers, buying large tracts of land in the older-settled
counties, and going right to work for themselves. Many of them came into the
State early enough in the spring to raise good crops, and being well satisfied
and contented, they now invite others to come. There is room for all; but the
land is being homesteaded and pre-empted at such a rate that in a few years
there will not be a homestead left within the borders of Kansas. I know there
are many in Tioga county who want to come out here, but fear the uncertainties,
as they say, of this country. To all such – being an older resident than a great
many – I advise you to stay where you are. Kansas don’t want any such people;
she only wants those who are willing to come and help themselves. Kansas will
furnish the land; but you must do the work.
The harvest in southern Kansas is comparatively over, while in the
northwestern portion it is progressing. The season has been the most favorable
in the history of the State, and farmers were never more jubilant. The wheat is
well filled and plump, and will average throughout the State all the way from
twenty-five to thirty-five bushels per acre. I have not heard of a field that
would fall below the forty figure. Some few fields have been partly destroyed by
rust; but I have not heard an insect pest in the State. The acreage --- was
considerable more than last year, and the harvest has been a month earlier. It
is estimated that this crop alone will yield between thirty-five and forty
million bushels. This is a pretty good showing for such a State as Kansas. It
will doubtless be the largest yield on this grain by any State during the year
1878.
Corn is several feet high, and never looked better, and the acreage planted
is more than double that of last year. Oats, rye and barley are all looking
splendid. The fruit crop will be the largest ever raised in Kansas, every tree
bearing apples and peaches is loaded down. Peaches, apples and cherries are in
market every day and strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are nearly all
gone. Peas, beans, beets, cucumbers, etc., have been as common for the past
month as they will be six weeks later. In fact, I have never seen vegetables and
fruit so early before. It is any wonder our people are so proud of their State?
I never saw Kansas people so exultant before. Every farmer who is asked
concerning his crops invariably answers, “They never looked better.”
The prejudice of older States toward Kansas in the past is fast dying out,
as is evident from the continual stream of immigration that has for the past few
months been pouring in upon us. I do not mean to say Kansas is gaining all this
immigration; but I do mean to say that Kansas has increased in population over
100,000 during the past eight months. Many pass through here on their way to
Colorado and New Mexico; thousands stop in Nebraska; but Kansas, the central
State of the Union with her immense and almost endless fields of wheat, the like
of which has never been known in any State, and which is now being harvested, is
attracting here such an immigration as has never been known in her history. –
And her people boast with pride of this fact.
I was amused, two or three weeks ago, in reading an item in the Agitator,
clipped from some State exchange, that the grasshoppers were again devastating
Kansas. – Such articles are published more to injure Kansas than they are for
the truth they contain. There is not, nor has there been, a grasshopper in
Kansas or Nebraska so far this year. The people here have other things to think
of than that they will again be visited by these terrible pests. I will try and
find out who that “enterprising” editor is who published this little squib, and
if they do again visit us, I will gather enough of them and send them to him by
express, so that he will know what they are. Not a grasshopper egg was deposited
in Kansas last fall; and we certainly can’t expect the grasshoppers before next
fall, after everything is out of the way, if we get them at all.
Politics are beginning to come up in the dim distance. Ex-Senator Pomeroy is
on the track for the Senate, to succeed John J. Ingalls. The ex-Senator is
making many warm friends throughout the State; but it is impossible to predict
as yet what the result will be. The candidacy of John A. Martin, editor of the
Atchison Champion, for the position of Governor, subject to the decision of the
Republican State Convention, it is claimed, has killed the chances of Pomeroy
and Ingalls for, the position of Senator which is to be filled next winter.
There is more political scheming just now than I ever saw before; and it will be
impossible to predict any kind of a result until after the convention, which
meets in August. But your correspondent predicts, at this early day, the
liveliest and hottest election since Kansas became a State. There will be
[cannot read this line] how they will vote. It will be hard for the Democrats to
beat our overwhelming Republican majority. It is not known whether the Greenback
element will put a ticket in the field this fall. They have called their State
Committee together to see what action they will take in this fall’s canvass.
The State Editorial Convention, which was in session here two days last
week, at the conclusion of its labors started on an excursion to Put-in-Bay, on
Lake Erie, and extended their trip as far east as Niagara Falls and Toronto.
Some one hundred and fifty newspapermen were present, among whom I noticed Frank
A. Root, of the North Topeka Times. The city of Atchison never does anything by
halves, but tendered the editors the free use of the city, gave them a grand
dance, drove them through the city, visiting our manufacturing establishments
and all places of resort, and threw old shoes at them as the train pulled out
from the depot. There are printed in the State – daily, weekly and monthly – one
hundred and eighty-nine publications; which is considered pretty good for a
State as young as Kansas. Can’t you suggest, Mr. Editor, through the columns of
your paper, the pleasure to be derived by your brethren of the press of the old
Keystone State in getting up an excursion to Atchison on the occasion of our
next Pennsylvania re-union, which will be some time in the fall.
The Missouri river is bank full, the occasion being the annual June rise.
The damage done every year by the Missouri will reach thousands and thousands of
dollars. Opposite this city acres and acres of good land have caved into the
river, while at St. Joseph and Kansas City the damage is even greater. At the
former place there is a great deal of fear that the river may cut another
channel, leaving that city and its bridge inland, while the river will run some
five miles distant. The fear at Kansas City is, that the river will cut around
the bridge, making the structure unsafe for the passage of trains. And unless
the Government goes to work and makes the necessary improvements at this city,
it is by no means certain that our bridge will not be, in two or three years, in
as much danger as those of our sister cities. The Missouri is the most
treacherous river on this continent. Another three-foot rise is now coming down
from the mountains.
I am pleased to hear that Judge J.F. Donaldson and his estimable wife are
contemplating a trip to the West. While the Judge is in Kansas City I hope he
can make it convenient to extend his trip to Atchison and sections. Here he will
see one of the liveliest little cities he ever saw. Buildings are going up on
every hand; two more elevators are in course of erection, and work is
progressing on the extension of two of out railroads. The Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe Company are pushing their line one hundred miles into New Mexico, and
in all probability will beat Tom Scott in his Pacific railroad scheme, while the
Central Branch Union Pacific are pushing their line still farther west, and
opening up the great homestead area of western and northwestern Kansas. All
kinds of business is unusually brisk, not only in this city but throughout the
entire State.
----H.C.R.
Wellsboro Agitator, 18 May 1880
From Kansas
The Crop Prospects – Political Affairs – Railroad Competition – River
Navigation – Wind Storms – A Tioga County Man Talked of for Governor – The
Journals of the State
Atchison, May 10, 1880 – Special Correspondence to the Agitator
The recent heavy rains in this section, extending through northwestern
Kansas to the Nebraska and Colorado line, have insured more than half a crop of
wheat, while in the southwestern portion, or from Newton 200 miles southwest of
the Missouri river, the wheat will hardly pay for cutting. Much of the grain
sown last fall and this spring in the southwestern portion of the State did not
come up, from the fact that no rains have fallen in that section since last
summer; but recent rains in this particular portion of the State have left the
ground in good condition for corn planting, which has now been progressing
uninterruptedly for the past three weeks. Increased acreage of this cereal is
being planted in all portions of the State; and if wheat doesn’t “pan out” well
in some sections, the corn crop is seldom a failure.
As I have said in former letters to the Agitator, there are portions of
Kansas, but sparsely settled, where farming cannot be carried on successfully,
and where the immigrants will be more or less subject to all kinds of hardship –
such as the loss of crops from drought, high winds, no timber, etc.; but as the
country becomes more thickly populated and railroads are built, climatic changes
will come about that will make this portion of Kansas capable of sustaining a
population of many thousands, and her rich soil will “blossom as the rose.”
Corn is up and growing finely. From all indications the fruit, peaches,
pears, apples, cherries and plums, all promise the largest crop ever raised in
Kansas. The threes are full of blossoms, and the weather has been most
favorable. If frost doesn’t come in the next two weeks, [and there is no
prospect of it now,] count Kansas alongside of New Jersey and Delaware in the
production of apples and peaches. Grapes are doing well, and reports from
several large vineyards in eastern Kansas predict an unusually large yield.
All kinds of garden “truck” – such as onions, lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage,
new potatoes, peas, beans, etc. – made their appearance in market several days
ago; while strawberries have been for sale more than two weeks. Several of the
churches have held strawberry festivals, while others are advertised for the
coming week and as far as two weeks ahead. Spring put in an earlier appearance
than for several years past, owing to the mild winter, there being but about two
inches of snow all winter. The ice market is now in its prime, there being eight
or ten wagons delivering ice through our city, selling at one cent a pound.
But little interest is not yet taken in our State election; nor will there
be much until after the Chicago Convention. Most of the old officers, however,
will be re-nominated. The principal fight will be made on Governor. The present
Governor will be a candidate for re-election, but in all probability will be
defeated in the Convention. As is well known throughout the country, St. John is
a great fanatic on the temperance question and father of the prohibition
amendment to be voted upon this fall. It is more than likely the amendment will
carry unless the people change from the course they are now pursuing, but if St.
John is the nominee, bets are freely offered that a Democrat will be Governor of
the Republican State of Kansas for the next two years. The State is full of
temperance orators who have been and are now canvassing every county in favor of
the prohibition amendment, and who claim that they will carry every county
except five. It is evident the people are not so crazy over this question now as
they were six weeks or two months ago, and the large number of German voters,
mostly Republican, say that if Governor St. John is re-nominated they will vote
for a Democrat. A lively campaign is anticipated.
At the time for the Chicago Convention draws nearer the excitement increases
among politicians, though I presume Kansas and Nebraska have the least of them
or any States in the Union. As in 1876, Kansas is overwhelmingly for Blaine. The
First and Second districts in the State Convention had a majority of Blaine men,
but the Third had a majority of eight or ten for Grant. Nebraska will also send
a Blaine delegation to Chicago. A large majority of the Republicans of this
State favor the nomination of Blaine; but, as in New York and Pennsylvania, the
politicians favor Grant. If the recent dispatches from these two States prove
true, that the delegates will abide by the wishes of the district Conventions,
then the political forces of Conkling and Cameron, who have so long controlled
the party in those States, must be broken. Blaine men in Kansas feel greatly
encouraged by the action of New York and Pennsylvania.
Railroad building is progressing on at least five of the Kansas roads, while
the great transcontinental line, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, is being
pushed through to the Pacific coast as rapidly as men and teams can do it. They
have already reached Santa Fe and Albuquerque in New Mexico, and the latest
advises say the road has been completed to a point 100 miles beyond the last
named place. The officials of this line think that by 1881 they will have their
road completed and in running order to the coast, notwithstanding the opposition
of Jay Gould with his immense influence and wealth to defeat it. He owns the
only line, as yet, to the Pacific coast, and has done everything in his power,
by fair or foul means, to prevent the building up of another powerful railroad
corporation from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean. Gould has fought this
company in every conceivable way. He has tried to scare them into selling; he
has used his immense wealth lavishly to prevent the sale of their bonds, and he
tried to head them off from getting an eastern outlet. But this gigantic
corporation met him face to face and beat him in all his own schemes. W.B.
Strong, one of the oldest and ablest railroad managers in this country, is
Vice-President and general manager of the road; and to him more than to anybody
else is the rapid extension and the successful financial condition of the road
largely due. The whole country will hail with delight the completion of this
road. It passes through a grand agricultural and stock and sheep raising
country, trains can run the year round without being blocked by the mountain
snows for two and three weeks at a time, and it will made Gould come to time on
the exorbitant freight and passenger rates that he has been charging ever since
the northern road was opened for traffic. It is expected and anticipated that by
this time next year the people will have the opportunity of getting aboard the
trains of this road at the Missouri river and not leave them until they arrive
in San Francisco, at probably one-half the price new charged by the Union
Pacific, a Gould road.
The navigation of the Missouri river will be more general this summer than
it has been for years. The season is much earlier, and there have already been a
dozen or more boats up from St. Louis, some going up as far as Fort Benton, and
others laden with freight for river points. Those going to the mountains are
generally filled with commissary stores for the upper Missouri river forts as
well as with Indian stores. The writer will remembers that before any railroads
were built in Kansas, during the summer three or four boats would tough our
levee daily. Now if that many boats reach us in a month, people will flock to
the levee as though they had never seen a boat before.
During my fifteen years’ residence in Kansas I have never known such high
winds as have been prevalent this spring. For three and four days at a time they
would blow a hurricane, filling the air with dust and sand, and blinding people.
The dust became so dense that people could hardly distinguish objects across the
street, and it filled the air so completely that is darkened the sun, people
supposing the sky was cloudy and that some terrible tornado was in the air. The
day the cyclone struck Marshfield, Mo., was literally the worst day I ever
witnessed in Kansas. It was a beautiful morning; but toward noon the wind
increased in velocity, changing from the south to the northwest, and it became
so cold in less than an hour that the people changed from summer clothing back
to winter, put on overcoats, built fires, and by the middle of the afternoon not
a person could be seen on the street. I heard several people say that it froze
ice that Sunday night thick enough to bear them up. At eight o'clock in the
morning the thermometer was 80° in the shade, and by night it had dropped to
15°. While Atchison has heretofore escaped these destructive cyclones, they are
getting so numerous that now her inhabitants are nervous every time they see
clouds gathering in the horizon. It is hoped our heavy wind – our people call
them April winds, - are over for this year. In portions of the State they have
dug cyclone-proof cellars adjoining their residences.
 |
Frank A. Root has left Kansas, settling in Colorado, and will shortly
commence the publication of a weekly paper at Gunnison City, in the southern
portion of that State. This valley is said to be rich in agricultural as well as
mineral wealth, and Frank predicts he has struck a big bonanza. A large
emigration is flocking into this country. Two railroads are headed that way, I
presume my friend C.A. Deane, of ----, could enlighten your readers about that
section, as --- concerning Leadville, there are but few places in Colorado that
he has not seen.
Captain J.M. Steele, of Wichita, in this State, and one of the best men in Kansas, formerly a Tioga County boy, and well known in Wellsboro, is being presently mentioned by the Republican party of the State as a candidate for the office of Governor. |
One of the pleasures that our people are not enjoying is fishing. Every day large fishing parties can be seen wending their way toward the numerous lakes in this vicinity, returning at night, - some are most tired out, others with a good-sized string of fish and still others bringing back but the recollections of the pleasures of a real old-fashioned fishing excursion as it used to be away back in their old eastern home. I have seen catfish caught in the lake that would weigh over 100 pounds. Every afternoon there are from three to five such wagons in market. The fish are caught mostly with seine and net, and they sell for sex cents a pound.
Kansas has turned out another author. I refer to E.J. Jenkins, Register of the Republican valley land district, the location of the Land Office being at Concordian Cloud county. His book bears the title of “The Northern Tier,” and treats of all that portion of the State known as Northern and Northwestern Kansas. It is a book – neatly bound and containing 200 pages – descriptive of the homestead region, life among the homestead settlers, the first settlement of Northern Kansas, Indian raids, etc., as the author says, “it was written to preserve some of the memorable ---- and incidents that transpired during his observation of the first settlement of Northern Kansas.” There are many interesting anecdotes throughout the volume, all of which are told, in fine style, mostly occurring during Mr. Jenkins’s twenty-five years in Kansas. The book is not only a credit to its author, but also a valuable acquisition to the history of our State.
Judge F.G. Adams, Secretary of the State Historical Society, has taken pains to ascertain how many publications, daily and weekly, there are in Kansas. There are 2 dailies and 273 weeklies. Besides, there are several monthly publications, making in all 310 issues. Your readers will naturally conclude that Kansas is a good field for newspapers, and that the newspaper fraternity are getting rich. There are many excellent journals published in the State, ---- a good make-up and fine typographical appearance, but a large majority of the weekly papers are dingy, dirty in appearance, the type worn out and the print blurred and are a disgrace to the State.
----H.C.R.
Wellsboro Agitator, 18 May 1880
Denver to Leadville
Up the South Platte Canyon – A High Railroad Station – By Stage to Leadville – A Frosty City and its Silver Mines
To the Editor of the Agitator [probably from C.A. Deane]
Leadville, Colorado – May r, 1880
In my last letter I gave you a rough and hasty account of our trip as far as Denver. Our party of eight left Denver 10 o’clock Sunday morning, the 2nd instant, and took the Denver, South Park and Pacific railroad. Twenty minutes brought us to the foot of the mountain and at the South Platte canon, the entrance gate to the Rocky Mountains. We whirled through the rocky pass at a frightful rate. There is just room to get through the rocks towering far up and covered with snow. The overhanging rock would sometimes cause a shudder to come over us; but had one broken loose we should have been out of the way, ere it reached the bottom, for our train flew like a weaver’s shuttle.
We halted at twenty-five stations before reaching the end of the road. At Kenosha we reached the summit of the Kenosha range at an altitude of 10,105 feet – the highest point reached by rail in the United States. Some part of the road has a grade of 218 feet to the mile. At this point we were up in the snow, and the atmosphere was so chilly that we were compelled to have a fire, although when we left Denver about five hours before, the sun was very hot.
At Red Hill station we crossed the South Park. This is a large tract of land on which not a bush is to be seen, its only products being prairie and buffalo grass. Although not a green thing is visible, cattle live upon the dry grass. One ranchman has 15,000 sheep that are pasturing on this Park, and there are thousands of heads of cattle besides that are herded there. The Park is seventy miles long and an average of twenty miles in width. We arrived at Buena Vista, a distance of 135 miles, about nine o’clock in the evening. From Denver to this point, as the bee flies, would be, I should think, about 75 miles.
The next morning at ten o’clock the fun began. Barlow & Anderson’s stagecoaches were in readiness for us. There were eleven in all, and the agent said it was a light load. Each passenger had to register, and as his name was called take his place in the coach. Each coach had three seats inside, and each seat was to hold three passengers, and there was room for three more outside. We that were inside were packed tightly. I suppose to keep us from bursting. And so we started on our way up the Arkansas river over the roughest road ever traveled by man I verily believe. There were hundreds of freight teams on the road – eight mules to each team and two wagons coupled together. They reminded me of the army trains during the late war. The road was completely lined with dead horses, mules and oxen. After being bruised and thumped for about eight hours we arrived at the great city of Leadville, where we found plenty of snow and in the gutters and on the north sides of the buildings. The city stands mainly on level ground, but the eastern side is quite steep. There are some very fine buildings, but as a whole they are very cheap structures.
This morning I visited the Morning Star mine. The main shaft – there are three – is down three hundred feet, and the ore is hoisted by a steam engine. The precious stuff has the appearance of any common rottenstone, but it is yielding about 80 ounces of silver to the ton. I also visited a smelter, which was running on the Robert E. Lee ore, yielding 90 ounces of silver to the ton. Each 24 hours they run out on the average 200 bars of metal, each weighing 85 pounds.
On reaching here I had to set my watch back about 2 1/1 hours to be with the time here. The sun is almost burning hot during the day; but as soon as it is out of sight, at half past six o’clock, the air grows cold. The water in the streets in the evening is ice in the morning. I saw today where the frost in the street is still three feet deep. Leadville is fast becoming moral and reformed. Last night but one man had the misfortune to get his head smashed and to be relieved of $600, and but one fight with pistols is reported today.
The members of our party are all well and happy. The snow is too deep as yet to cross the range to the Gunnison country, notwithstanding parties are bound to try. But they will be compelled to shovel snow for a number of miles. It is reported to be twenty feet deep over the range.
Wellsboro Agitator, 5 July 1881, p3
--Mr. John C. Root, of Atchison, Kansas arrived here on a visit to his parents last Friday. Mr. Root is a compositor in the Daily Champaign office at Atchison. It is four years since he last visited Tioga county. We are indebted to Mr. Root for some interesting western journals.
Wellsboro Agitator, 19 December 1882, p1
Politics and Corps in Kansas
Why Governor St. John was Defeated – A Colored State Officer – A Republican Legislature – Great Wheat, Corn and Fruit Crops – Mining and Whisky – Personal Notes
Atchison, Kansas, December 7, 1882
It has been a long time since your Kansas correspondent has been heard from; but he hopes he has not been entirely forgotten by the many friends and acquaintances he had in old Tioga sixteen years ago. For all that time the Agitator has been his constant visitor. It tells the news from home as does a letter; even the advertisements are eagerly scanned, and the “locals,” country correspondence, births, marriages and deaths are all read and re-read with intense interest. Looking over the advertisements in the Agitator now, I scarcely see one name of those who were advertisers sixteen years ago. I often wonder what has become of John R. Bowen, M.M. Converse, C.G. Osgood, Thomas Harden, Clark L. Wilcox, and many others whose names were quite familiar to readers of the Agitator fifteen years ago.
The election of a Democratic Governor of Kansas was doubtless a surprise to all readers of the Agitator. It was a “big thing” for the Democrats to overturn a State that has always given the Republican ticket from 40,000 to 50,000 majority. The nomination of Governor St. John for a third term, and the adoption of the prohibition and female suffrage planks in the State platform brought about this disastrous result. It was too heavy a load for the Republicans to carry at one time. There are thousands of people who do not believe St. John is sincere in his temperance principles, and so voted against him; and then thousands voted against him only to cut his majority down, not believing they could defeat him. The vote of the State for Governor in 1880 was: St. John, Republican, 115,204; Ross, Democrat, 63,557; Vrooman, Greenback, 10,477. This year it was as follows: Gilck, Democrat, 83,197; St. John, Republican, 73,155; Robinson, Greenback, 20,933, showing a plurality for the Democratic candidate of 8,042. The vote shows that the people were tired of St. John and so said in unmistakable terms at the polls.
Where is there another State in the North that has put a colored man on the State ticket and elected him by a full party vote? Kansas has done this. E.P. McCabe was nominated for Auditor of State, one of the most responsible offices in the gift of the people, on the same ticket with St. John. The vote for this office was: McCabe, Republican, 86,160; Brown, Democrat, 66,131; Garretson, Greenback, 24,601, showing a plurality of over 20,000 for the colored man McCabe. If there is another Northern State where the Republican Party has honored the colored race with one of the highest offices in the gift of the people, will the Agitator point it out? Mr. McCabe has been a resident of Kansas for several years, lives in Graham county, has filled several offices of trust with credit and satisfaction, and will doubtless make a creditable officer. He polled over 11,000 more votes than Governor St. John.
The Legislature is strongly Republican. The Lower House will be composed of 125 members, the Republicans having 70 and the combined opposition 55. The Senate holds over from two years ago and is strongly Republican, thereby insuring the return of P.D. Plumb to the United States Senate. Considerable opposition to him has developed lately, but as yet there is not enough to defeat him. Several candidates are mentioned to succeed him, among whom may be mentioned Representative John A. Anderson. The reason of the opposition to the Senator is because of his open advocacy of Gov. St. John.
The four big Congressmen were re-elected by about the same majorities. Sam Wood, Greenback, has filed a notice that he will contest the election of Judge Peters, because he is ineligible on account of holding the office of District Judge at the time of election. Whether it amounts to anything remains to be seen. Peters is one of the “Big Four.” The contestant received the largest vote of any of the opposition. A warm time is anticipated.
The largest wheat and corn crop ever raised in Kansas was harvested this year. I have heard the figures for both crops, which I would like to lay before the readers of the Agitator, but I have forgotten them. They are enormous. The only drawback now is that shippers can’t get cars fast enough to transport the grain to market. Fall wheat is looking the best at this time ever known, although there was a decreased acreage of it sown on account of the dry season last fall. The fruit crop was immense, especially apples, and the crop 1882 has put Kansas in the front rank of the apple producing States. All the surplus crop was shipped to Eastern States, the fruit in Illinois, Ohio and Indiana being almost a failure. Kansas is better off this year by several millions of dollars than she ever was before.
We are reminded of the approach of winter by the two snowstorms that have already visited us, snow falling to the depth of about two inches both times. The Missouri river is lower than I have ever seen it before, a sand bar extending nearly across and up and down for two or three miles. A Kansas fall is oftentimes the most beautiful part of the year. It has been so this year. The weather has been most favorable for the farmers to harvest the largest crops ever known, for the progress of work in city and town and for the completion of several lines of railroad. The approach of winter reminds the young people of the holidays. “Christmas is coming,” say all of them, and the stores are fairly loaded down with Christmas goods. If the present weather continues, Christmas will be more generally observed here than ever before.
An incident of the early navigation of the Missouri will be of interest to many of your readers. Some thirty years ago the steamboat, Pontiac, laden with over 100 barrels of whisky and other stores for the upper Missouri river country, struck a snag two miles north of Atchison and sunk. All efforts to raise the boat and secure the cargo were supposed by some of the citizens of Atchison to have proved unavailing, and they have had a covetous eye on the spot where the whisky went down. For the past three months some of them have been digging for the treasure, and they claim to have found the boat, but it is so far imbedded in the sand, and so much driftwood is over it, that the work of unearthing it is slow. At any rate, the whisky, if there is worth over $300,000 and must certainly be a good article. They are hoisting the sand and driftwood by means of derricks, and feel perfectly confident of the ultimate recovery of the treasure.
At the soldiers’ reunions in Topeka, during the State Fair in September last, there were from 30,000 to 35,000 soldiers present. The writer was pleased to meet some of the old boys of the 187th Pa., among whom was Robert Steele, of Company A, now a substantial and prosperous citizen of Eldorado, Butler county, whom I had not seen since our discharge in August, 1865. It was a pleasant reunion that we had all to ourselves.
Rumor has it that Sam King and family, of Seneca, Kansas, formerly Tioga county people, and who have been living in Kansas for upwards of a dozen years, are soon to return to Pennsylvania.
I think I observe the earmarks of my friend C.A. Deane in the Rocky Mountain incident published in last week’s Agitator. I read it with great interest. And, by the way, what has become of my friend E.S.C., whose letters in the Agitator were always so lively and interesting?
----H.C.R.
Wellsboro Agitator, 27 November 1883, p2
A Prosperous Year in Kansas
Abundant Harvest – A New Industry – Regulating the Railroads – Politics –
The Prohibitory Law – Plenty of Game
Atchison, November 20, 1883
Winter is coming on in Kansas clear and bright, as is its fashion in this
latitude. Outdoor traveling is a luxury, and but one little flurry of snow has
been seen in this immediate locality. As I write, however, the channel of the
Missouri is running full of ice caused by the arctic weather they have been
having away up north. Here in Kansas, today a bright sun and hazy atmosphere
prevail.
The year now drawing to a close has been remarkable for its rainfall – the
greatest known in the sixteen years that a regular record has been kept at the
State University. As a result, the harvest of all kinds of crops has been
wonderful. But three counties report a failure, and they are frontier counties,
out on the high western plains, and thinly settled. In Kansas no fertilizer is
needed or used except rainwater.
In the far western counties of Kansas, where the elevation is from 2,000 to
3,000 feet above the sea level the stock interest has made great advances. These
counties are filling up with cattle and sheep, which live on the range. A
hundred miles east of these are counties like Jewell, where a million bushels of
corn to the county is not an uncommon crop, so that the winter feeding of cattle
driven in from the west is a profitable business.
A new boom has struck Kansas in the shape of the manufacture of sugar from
the sorghum cane. Large sugar mills have been built at Hutchinson, Sterling and
Kinsley in western Kansas and at Ottawa in the eastern part of the State.
Several other mills will be built next year in other portions of the State. The
Sterling factory has been the most successful, and has made many thousand pounds
of bright yellow sugar that cannot be distinguished from the New Orleans article
of the same grade. The mills have just stopped grinding, owing to the freezing
of the cane. The length of the sugar making season here is shown by the fact
that cane has stood in the field unaffected by frost until the middle of
November.
The railroad regulation question is now uppermost in the public mind. The
Legislature of last winter passed a railroad law providing for a Board of
Railroad Commissioners, and they are now in consultation with the managers of
the different railroads in the State in relation to freight rates, passengers’
fares of three cents a mile being already fixed by law. It is probable that
freight rates will be reduced, particularly on coal, and there will be an
attempt made to break up the practice of railroad companies also doing business
as coal mining companies, thus crippling smaller operators.
There is a steady immigration to the State of well-to-to people who are
buying lands and town property in the eastern and central counties. In
consequence, all the old towns in Kansas are enjoying unexampled prosperity.
Thee years of continued good crops have been such an advertisement for Kansas,
that Eastern States are jealous of her. Kansas is more prosperous today than she
ever was before, having raised the largest corn and wheat crops ever known in
her history. By the shortage of these crops in many of the Eastern States,
Kansas is already called upon for all her surplus. Another fact: Kansas has come
to be considerable of a fruit State, having shipped many thousand bushels of
apples to Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and other cities of the East. The
Kansas apple has become a great favorite in many of the Eastern markets.
The creamery business has been a great source of profit to western Kansas.
Where there was one in operation two years ago there are a dozen now, and Kansas
creamery butter is now quoted in all the great Eastern markets at as high
figures as any. In the starting up of any new Western town nowadays one of the
first improvements is a creamery. No western Kansas town is now “well fixed”
without one. In many towns, also, the prevailing beverage is buttermilk – more
wholesome than all the whisky that was ever distilled or the beer that is
brewed.
The recent county elections in Kansas show which way the great State is
drifting for victory in 1884. It will be remembered that Kansas elected a
Democratic Governor last fall. Every county elected a majority of the Republican
ticket this fall, a large majority of them electing a solid delegation.
Atchison, the home of the Governor’s county, which gave him over 1,300 majority,
elected all the ticket except two by majorities ranging from 300 to 800. The
people are tired of Governor Glick, and will so effectually sit down on him next
year that he will only carry away the honor of knowing that he is the first and
will be the last Democratic Governor to preside over Republican Kansas.
It is well known that we have a prohibition law, but it is openly violated
in most of the towns in the State, the Governor locking horns with the saloon
keepers in violating the law. A great temperance wave is now sweeping through
the State, and here in Atchison on Sunday last, the temperance people held the
largest meeting ever held here. It is openly asserted that prohibition will
prohibit in Atchison, Leavenworth, Topeka and all the larger cities in the State
before the close of the year.
Col. John A. Martin, Secretary of the Republican National Committee and
editor and proprietor of the Atchison Champion, the oldest journal in Kansas,
publishes a call for a meeting of that Committee in Washington, December 12th,
for the purpose of deciding on a date and place for holding the next National
Republican Convention.
The Tioga county boys in Kansas are well pleased with the election of Hon.
Jerome B. Niles for Auditor General of Pennsylvania. The success of the
Republicans in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and other States was
heartily commented upon by the Republican press of Kansas, who now think they
have the best show for success in 1884.
United States Senator John I. Ingalls, of Kansas, leaves for Washington in a
few days. During the summer and fall he has been looking up his chances for
re-election, visiting every portion of the State. At this far-off day [our
Legislature doesn’t meet until next winter] his chances for being his own
successor are most encouraging. He is one of the ablest, brightest and most
brilliant statesmen in the National Congress.
Railroad building throughout the State is progressing at a lively rate. In
fact, Kansas is becoming a network of railroads, having now over 4,000 miles.
The prospects are that next year several hundred miles more will be added. The
system of voting bonds, carried on so extensively a few years ago, is fast dying
out. Now the railroads are generally built when it is thought there is enough
trade to justify the building. Eight of the railroads leading into Atchison were
given large bonds.
There are but few of the large colony of Tioga county boys left that settled
in Pawnee county, the rest having returned to the home of their nativity. They
came before that section commenced to change for the better. I counted some
twenty that remain, out of over two hundred who located there. Of those who
stayed all are in business and making money. Then the Agitator contained
numerous “personals” of Tioga county boys returning from “droughty” Kansas, now
I scarcely see an item of any one “coming home.” The writer has been in Kansas
over eighteen years, and likes it better today than ever before. Although among
the youngest States, I believe it will, in the near future, be one of the
grandest in the Union. Kansas will be heard from this year all over the world.
Game of all kinds is more abundant than for many years. Quails, prairie
chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and antelope furnish rare sport to the hunters,
and I know of several Wellsboro boys who would almost go crazy if they could
have one week’s hunt on the prairies of western Kansas.
Traveling quite extensively through Kansas and Nebraska this year, I found
the Agitator at many a fireside of the Tioga boys scattered through these
States. To receive your excellent paper is like getting a letter from some
valued friend at home. Your Kansas correspondent has been slow during the
summer, but hopes to make up for his tardiness this winter.
----H.C.R.
| Henry and Frank Root Letters Part One | Part Two | Part Three |
|
|||
|
