Emigrant Life in Kansas

Preface

. In dedicating this work to the public, the author trusts that its contents will be found of sufficient interest to retain the attention of the ordinary reader. Being a bond-fide narrative of personal experiences, it may perhaps suffer from a lack of " hair-breadth escapes and thrilling episodes," such as in reading a description of life on the "boundless prairie" one is usually apt to conjure up. But if, at the expense of these, a strict attention to fact may in these days contain sufficient attraction, the author has the modest hope that the seeker after information may, respecting a comparatively unknown part of that truly great and wonderful country, PREFA CE. IV — the United States, — find a few points worthy of his remembrance ; while he who reads for entertainment only may possibly find enough of interest, and perhaps amusement, to warrant the book's perusal.

And if beyond this these pages may assist in the least degree the intending emigrant, the author will be more than satisfied. A regard for the truth has also prompted the insertion (in Chapter X.) of a proceeding not altogether to the author's credit ; but after mature reflection — while not attempting to justify the action — he has determined to let it stand, and trusts that the reader will, like the author's father, pardon the foolish step. The book has few pretensions of either a literary or scientific nature, but as a plain unvarnished record of life in the far west — and as such only — it claims the indulgence of the public. PAGE I 17 CONTENTS.

Chapter I. The Start

London to New York. — Five days' travelling by rail. — Arrival at Junction City. — Our first Indians. — Wild Bill. — An offer of adoption. — Parkersville. — Texas cattle. — Captain Brown

Chapter II. The Hove On To The Prairie

Our shanty. — Baking bread. — A wild cat. — A revolver accident. — Our shanty is built on the wrong land. — Moving. — The house built. — The furniture. — Breaking prairie. — Parker's cellar. — Planting beans. — Skunks. — A dark night. — Animals, insects, and reptiles. — Duck keeping. — Jack's geese. — My pig CHAPTER HI. WE GET SOME NEIGHBOURS. 'Prairie" Wilson. — George Dyson. — A young grandmother. — " Dutch Jake." — -The Quinns. — Gathering wild grapes and " tearing around." — Sleeping sixteen CONTENTS. VI PAGE 41 59 in one room. — Bill Harper and his ring. — John Turney's "'ot potatoes." — A prairie fire. — The pet antelope. — The Garretts. — An evening; party

Chapter IV. Snake Stories, Etc

Our first acquaintance. — A novel weapon. — A false alarm. — A narrow escape. — A curious sight. — Instinct of pigs. — Our decision, and how we kept it. — Snake hunts. — Another kind of wild cat. — Varieties of snakes. — An easyvictim. — Frogsand snakes. — Game. — Figure 4 traps. — Edible and other prairie plants .

Chapter V. Farming And Herding

Our crops. — Pig killing. — First Christmas on the prairie. — Losing cattle. — Visited by Indians. — Cold weather. — Moving our house. — Building stone. — Our mule and pony. — Soap-making. — Indian corn. — Our family party gets smaller. — The blue bird. — The Prices. — Our herd. — Sleeping out of doors. — Cooking frogs. — Bad water. — Breaking up. — The prairie fire . . -74

Chapter VI

I LEAVE HOME. Economising. — Zedekiah Blake. — Wood - chopping. — Rabbit-hunting. — The trapper. — A touch of earthquake. — A creek accident. — Ague. — A touch of scurvy. — Scarcity of mutton. — A whisky accident. — Maloy. — Council Grove. — How to make dogs hardy. — A camp-meeting CONTENTS. VII PAGE

Chapter VII. Grasshoppers, Etc

Arrival of the pest. — Attempted precautions. — Their fearlessness. — How the corn vanished. — The orchard stripped. — Down the well. — Their departure. — Their multitude. — The lost cow. — Indians. — The Indian's grave 126

Chapter VIII. Back To The Prairie

A split in the camp. — Early rising. — The county treasurer. — Living in a dug-out. — The Grasshopper Relief Fund. — The old home again. — The sick cow. — The disappearance of the Quinns. — A rifle accident. — Building a schoolhouse. — Road-making. — How the land is divided 139

Chapter IX. More Herding

Another engagement. — The Cromptons. — Helping on the farm. — A fog. — Strayed horses. — Lost heifer. — Clearing Wilkinson's melon patch. — Snakes. — The wild bees' nest. — Mud-daubers. — The quarrel. — Bad weather. — My pony wears out 154

Chapter X. Leaving Home Again

Premature arrangements. — An unexpected check. — Start for Junction. — A silent ride. — My note. — Down the CONTENTS. PAGE 174 track. — Commence work for Anderson. — Shucking and hauling corn. — A horse trading trial. — Tom Crofter. — Anderson moves. — A bad road. — The mail carrier. — The new farm. — Rats. — Leave Anderson

CHAPTER XL ANOTHER CHANGE.

The Whiteman family. — John Hardy. — Beer gardens. — Harvesting. — Fourth of July. — Heavy storm. — Swimming in the cornfields. — Horses on the railroad. — A funeral. — The Eureka Valley. — The lake. — Thrashing. — A panther. — Another chance of adoption. — My watch 202

Chapter XII. Conclusion

Good-bye to Kansas. — On the ice at Quincy.— Philadelphia. — The man's thumb. — The sharper.— On board the Pennsylvania. — Stuck in the ice. — Christmas and New Year on the sea.-— Home again.— Ashtabula Bridge. — A few words of advice ....

Chapter I. The Start

London to New York. — Five days' travelling by rail. — Arrival at Junction City. — Our first Indians. — Wild Bill. — An offer of adoption. — Parkersville. — Texas cattle. — Captain Brown. On Lord Mayor's Day, the gth of November, 1870, there started, from my native town of Blanxton, in the south of England, a party of six persons, bound as emigrants for the far west of America. It consisted of my father, brother, three young men, and myself. My father had been an upholsterer, doing a very good business, but having always had a great wish to go abroad, thought it, I suppose, a good opportunity, when his place was burned down in June of the same year ; Harry Parker had been a shorthand clerk on the London and North Western Railway, but for some time past had been in my father's office; Walter Woods was a printer by trade, but had also studied engineering a little; Will Humphrey was the son of a Sussex farmer, and conse quently the most useful man of the bunch, as we were going farming and cattle-raising'; while my brother Jack and I were schoolboys of the tender ages of twelve and ten years respectively.

With the exception of Humphrey, none of us knew anythingwhatever of farming ; I might say that we scarcely knew a plough from a harrow (I remember one of our party speaking very enthusiastically of churning cheese), and we had certainly never done a day's work on a farm. To be sure Jack had been sent to a farm a few miles from Blanxton for a couple of months before we left, to learn what he could ; but I did not observe, when we arrived on our land in America, that he had much more knowledge than the rest of us. We took with us about enough luggage to stock a colony, all packed in ten great cases, four feet long by two feet six square, painted of a bright vermilion colour, and with our names and destination on. The latter was "Junction City, Kansas." The contents of these cases were of a very varied nature, and comprised tools, clothing, arms, and ammunition, besides tea, cocoa, etc., etc.

Many of the things were quite useless we afterwards found, and a great number we could have bought in America quite as cheaply as in England. Among the totally useless articles was a hand corn-mill with a great fly-wheel of five feet diameter, which, of course, required a larger box. The guns, however, were packed in with this, and we had quite a good armoury. There were four double-barrelled shot guns and two rifles, as well as seven six-chambered revolvers, and in addition to this formidable array we each sported a tremendous jack-knife, too large for the pocket, and so worn with a cord sailor-wise. Having seen this crowd of things all safely packed and started for Liver pool, we took leave of all our friends, and left Blanxton at seven o'clock in the morning so that we might get across London with our smaller luggage (such as we would want on the voyage) before the streets got crowded.

We reached Liverpool in good time, and saw EMIGRANT LLFE LN KANSAS. 4 the majority of our luggage on board, though there were two cases delayed somewhere, which had to follow on in another steamer. After looking around Liverpool a little we retired for the i ght to the Union Hotel, and breakfast ing early the next morning, went aboard the good ship City of Brooklyn, of the Inman Line. Walter and I went on board first with the small luggage, and got it stowed away in our bunks (for we were going to travel steerage as genuine emigrants), and then came up on deck. Well, we waited and waited for the remainder of our party, until we thought we should have to go by ourselves ; but just as the ship was off they arrived by the last trip of the tender. We started down the Mersey at eleven o'clock, and arrived the next morning in Queenstown Har bour, where the ship was soon surrounded with bum-boat women, desirous of parting with great quantities of fruit, legs of mutton, fresh butter, eggs, etc.

We, having taken in a good supply of apples and the ship a good supply of Irish emigrants besides the mail bags, steam was got up, and we were soon out on the broad Atlantic. A journey across the " Herring- Pond," as our American cousins call this ocean, has been so often described that it is needless for me to say much about it. We had some rough weather, of course. One night it was so bad that the Irish women were rushing about calling upon the Virgin Mary and all the saints, and making a most tremen dous noise. This had no effect apparently, except that it brought the wrath of the steward upon their heads, who told them to "dry up, or he'd lock the hatches on 'em." How ever, I slept through it all until daybreak, when it still remained very rough, the great waves rushing right over the bulwarks, and drenching every one who attempted to pass along the middle decks.

Of course, being in the steerage, we suffered considerable inconve nience at meals, etc., in this rough weather, as we were not provided with such luxuries as swinging tables, that would preserve their equilibrium, such as were in the saloon. It required a little practice before we could get our soup or coffee to take the right direction when everything was at an angle of about forty five degrees. Our meals were as follows : breakfast, hot rolls, butter, and coffee ; dinner, soup, salt-junk, occasionally fresh'meat, and potatoes, broad streets and avenues, public buildings, etc. We crossed the river also to see New Jersey city, and Brooklyn, both fine places, and were very much pleased with Greenwood Cemetery, which is far prettier than anything of the kind in England. It is laid out like a park with trees and ornamental waters, and has some fine monuments.

It looks nice enough to make one almost wish to take a plot there. My father went to see some land that was for sale at a place called Brickwood across the river, and some few miles from the city, and almost came to terms. If he had bought it, he would have gone in for market-gardening, but he preferred to go farther west. There was a funny old man staying at our hotel, who had a queer way of spending his time. He had heard something about a certain Captain Kidd, a pirate, burying some treasure on an island in the river many years ago, and he used to devote all his energies to trying to find it. He would come to New York and earn some money somehow, and then go back to the island and dig till all his money was gone again. He started off on one of his expeditions while we were there, with spade and pick.

Poor old fellow ! I wonder if he ever found the treasure. At the end of a fortnight, finding that Humphrey would not be able to leave the hospital for some time, we started up the country. After two days and nights in the cars we arrived at Chicago, and being Sun day, we had to lay over all day, as the trains do not run on Sundays, except local, short distance trains. We spent the day looking over the city and wandering about the shores of Lake Michigan, which seemed quite like the ocean, with its great waves and spray dashing on the shore. Early on Monday morning we again took to the cars, and after three more days and nights arrived at Junction City, Davis County, Kansas, which is nearly fifteen hundred miles from New York City. This may seem rather slow travelling, one thousand five hundred miles in five days, but what with changing and other delays, we lost a good deal of time.

The journeys now are made a good deal faster. We were very comfortable in the cars, for we did not go on by the emigrant trains, but in the regular Pullmans, in which we slept and ate our meals without the train stopping. Upon our arrival at Junction we put up at the Empire Hotel, and had a jolly time; for while the elder members of the party were looking about for land and shooting all the game they could, we two boys amused our selves with sleigh-riding down the Bluffs, as the hills on the other side of the Smoky River were called, and with making divers excursions into the surrounding country. Sometimes we went to see the stone quarries a little way out of town, where very fine building material is obtained. Then again we used to watch the men sawing and pulling ice out of the river ready for packing away for summer.

One day we went down to the slaughter-house, and we got a couple of cow's horns, which we made to blow, by sawing the ends off and cutting a small hole, and then we made the hills re-echo with the music (?). At that time Junction was quite a small place, with a very few hundred inhabitants, but was growing rapidly. It is situated on rather high land at the junction of the Smoky and Repub lican Rivers, whence its name. It is also now SLEIGH-RIDING DOWN THE BLUFFS. [To face page IO. the junction of two railways, the Kansas Pacific, and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. Three miles distant, on a bluff overhanging the Kansas River, (as it is called after the union of the two rivers just named), stands Fort Riley, a gar rison for light cavalry and artillery, as a guard against Indians. These are getting rather scarce, however, by this time, as the country is too thickly settled by the whites.

One day, when Jack and I were out on one of our expedi tions, we met three Indians, and, as they were the first that we had seen, we were rather scared. We were a long way off, and so we hid in some bushes. Little stupids ! We might have saved ourselves the trouble, for they probably saw us long before we saw them. But they passed by without molesting us. While we were staying at Junction we had some very cold weather, and one night three soldiers going home drunk to Fort Riley were frozen to death. One day we boys went out with the others when they were shooting, and feeling rather thirsty, I think that we astonished a farmer up on the prairie by going to ask for some beer. He must have taken us for lunatics, for no one keeps beer or anything of the kind in the house as they do in England ; and when we asked if he had no cider he just shut the door.

He did not seem to know what was meant. Cer tainly there were no apple trees about, so that perhaps they were strange questions to ask. "WILD BILL." Game was very plentiful, and we used to bring home lots for the landlady at the Empire Hotel, to make "sparing-pie " as she called it. One day we saw " Wild Bill," a noted desperado or "border ruffian," shooting quails in a stable yard in the city (they were so plentiful and tame). Wild Bill was a fine looking fellow, with long curly hair hanging down his back, and was dressed in rather a dandified fashion. He was said to have twenty seven nicks cut on the handle of his revolver, each signifying a man whose life had been taken by him. And yet he walked the streets as free as any man, and perhaps with more security than a less desperate criminal would, for he would have to be a plucky man to arrest " Wild Bill."

He was afterwards actually elected "sheriff" of Wichita, a town down south, which was frequented by the Texas " cow-boys," and he was killed at last in some saloon brawl. " Sheriff" there is another word for head policeman, and has not much connection with a city official such as we have in England. While staying at the Empire Hotel there was a young man lodging there who was suffering from a crushed arm. He was employed on the railway, and was hurt while shunting some trucks. The doctor used to come every day, and we boys took considerable interest in the dressing and painting with iodine, etc. The doctor was a very nice man, and having no children 'wanted to adopt me, but I did not particularly want to go with him, and my father did not particularly care about letting me, so we did not come to terms.

The doctor was quite in earnest about it, and offered my father one hundred and sixty acres of the best land on the river if he would let me come to him. I was to be brought up as a doctor, and should be free to go or stay with him on arriv ing at the age of twenty-one years. Of course, boy-like, I was looking forward to our life on the prairie as being all play or adventure, and hardly liked to give up the idea of it for good hard studying, such as I should have had to go in for. I have often since thought over it, and wondered how my life would have gone if I had accepted his offer. After we had stayed in Junction for six weeks we removed to Parkersville, a town some twenty-five miles distant, near where our party had taken land. Here we lived for a fortnight at a boarding-house, spending our time pretty much as before.

The town, which at that time consisted of about nineteen houses, a drug store, a post-office, and a general store, is situated in Morris County, on the river Neosho, sometimes called " No-show," as in summer it goes dry occasionally. The drug store was the rendezvous for all the farmers coming to town, for apart from its being also the post-office, it was the only place where "medicine" could be obtained. There was no regular saloon or drinking bar in the place, but every one that wanted a drink went to the drug store, and got a little whisky " medicinally." His Wor ship, the Mayor, ran the place, and I guess he did a good business. Another much fre quented place was the general store, run by Captain Brown; we had about the usual number of captains in that town, — about three out of every five persons.

Here the loafers congre gated in good force, sitting round the roaring, red-hot stove, with their heels high up, and chewing tobacco, talking politics, whittling sticks, and eating crackers and cheese. Captain Brown was a man of considerable importance, — anyhow in his own eyes, — but I guess my father kinder took the starch out of him once. Captain Brown offered him two fingers to shake, and my father immediately hooked into them with one — the little one. The next time they met it was a whole-handed job. E ATI GRANT LIFE IN KANSAS. One man staying at the boarding-house was a cattle dealer, and had a number of wild Texas animals wintering near at hand. We went to see them at the corral, and found several so weak that they co- 1 not stand. We assisted some to their feec only to get ourselves run after by the ungrateful brutes until they tumbled down again.

Cattle frequently get like that during the cold winter, especially those from the south for the first time. My father bought one or two cows in the neighbourhood ready for when we should go up on the prairie, but not having had any experience in such matters, I am afraid that he was rather taken in. He also bought a couple of town lots as a speculation in case the town took to growing. Some money belonging to Jack and me he invested for us in a piece of timber land on the river, so that when up on the prairie, we might have some wood to burn or for fences, and not be entirely dependent upon "jay-hawking," which is the term for stealing wood off Government land. HELPING A WEAK ONE. [ 7i> /iiT /ajf l6. OUR SHANTY. [To face page 17.

Chapter II. The Move On To The Prairie

Our shanty. — Baking bread. — A wild cat. — A revolver accident. — Our shanty is built on the wrong land. — Moving. — The house built. — The furniture. — Breaking prairie. — ■ Parker's cellar. — Planting beans. — Skunks. — A dark night. — Animals, insects, and reptiles. — Duck keeping. — Jack's geese. — My pig. On the 1 8th of February, 187 1, having hired a couple of waggons, we moved up on the prairie with all our luggage, and boards to build our house with. On arriving at our destination, seven miles from town, the large boxes were piled up, and the boards laid slanting from the top to the ground for a roof, and thus we made a very comfortable shanty. It was certainly none too large, though, for six of us (Humphrey having rejoined us at Junction), and it was so low that no one could stand upright in it at the highest part.

How ever, with she exception of the cook, we did EMIGRANT LIFE IN KANSAS. 18 not spend much time indoors — there was no door, though. We had an iron stove for cooking in one corner, with the flue running through the top, which once set fire to the building; but as we had plenty of water handy we were able to extinguish it before it did much damage. We were very well off for provisions, having a good supply of bacon, biscuits, eggs, cheese, coffee, sugar, flour, rice, etc. The cook, Harry Parker, made his first attempt at breadbaking before we had been here many days, but was not over successful. The bread was baked in a great iron pan, and was as hard as a well-done brick, and about as digestible. The outside could not be cut with a knife, we were obliged to use a hatchet to make any impression.

However, a few more trials soon improved the baking. For fuel we had to go about a mile down a little creek "jay-hawking." There were some small trees growing which we chopped down and dragged up to the shanty on wheelbarrows, not having any horses as yet. On one of these excursions Walter Woods shot a wild cat, and was for tunate in getting away without injury, as it attacks man when provoked. An old settler, who saw the brute afterwards, said that he would not like to tackle one with a gun only ; he would want a good knife or an axe to finish him with. But Walter saw some animal's eyes glaring at him from some bushes, and blazed away, shooting the creature dead. • It was then brought home in triumph on the barrow, and after being duly admired was skinned and buried. It was a good-sized animal, about twice the size of a large domestic cat, or larger.

Its fur was very nice and thick, and made a couple of good caps. While living in this mansion we had our first sight of a prairie fire, but as it was on high ground, where the grass was not rank, and there was very little wind, it was not particularly fierce. While living here we almost had an accident. We had amongst our collection an old pep per-box revolver, a stupid thing, with six barrels the full length of the machine, and not six chambers and one long barrel as usual. Well, this old thing was loaded, and some of the party, who had been practising shooting at a shingle target, were standing about trying E AUG RANT LIFE IN KANSAS. 20 to make the pepper-box go off, but it would not. They snapped and snapped, but without effect, until presently I took it up and pulled the trigger ; it hung fire for an instant, and then gave such a kick as to almost knock me over, and the bullets went flying just over the heads of my friends.

All six chambers went off at once for some inscrutable reason, but fortunately no one was hurt. The country around had all been surveyed by Government previous to our settling, and divided into square miles, — sections, they are called, — marked with a stone set in the ground. They may then be cut up easily into the required lots — viz., eighty acres for an ordinary settler, and one hundred and sixty for any man who has been a soldier in the Federal Army. When we began to look around us, we found that our goods were all dropped upon land belonging to Parker in stead of to my father, and as 'the house was to be built upon land belonging to the latter, all the boards, etc., had to be moved about half a mile upon the wheelbarrows. As we had a stream to cross on the way it was no easy task, but with one to push the barrow and another in front with a rope, we managed very well, getting stuck in the mud a few times, though, when it took all the available hands to pull the vehicle out.

We had been, up to this time, favoured with remarkably mild weather ; in fact, it was so warm, that on the 19th of February, the day following our arrival on the prairie, we went and bathed in a stream a little way from the shanty. In after years I never saw it warm enough to do that with any comfort before May, and I verily believe that had we had such weather as we experienced in following winters, that we should have all been frozen to death in our shanty. Of course we had a few cold snaps. For instance, after the house was completed, with the exception of the roof, and we had moved in, we awoke one morning with eighteen inches of snow on the top of our blankets, but there was no very hard frost with it. It may seem rather a funny thing to do, to go into a house before the roof is on ; but you see, as we' built the house we robbed the boards which formed the top of the box shanty, so that we were bound to sleep without a roof in any case.

EMIGRANT LLFE IN KANSAS. 22 We did all the work ourselves, having a carpenter's bench and plenty of tools, and made quite a comfortable little house. Cer tainly it was not very large, having only one room, fourteen feet by twelve, with an attic above, but it was large enough, especially in cold weather, and in hot weather we lived out of doors mostly. The attic was reached by a series of holes cut in the wall for hands and feet, which led to a trap-door in the ceiling, so that no room was lost by having a flight of stairs. For a table we used the carpenter's bench, and for beds we had the large boxes ranged round the room, which also, when the blankets were rolled up, served us as seats. Almost in the centre of the room stood the cooking stove with an iron pipe through the end of the house, so that with a row of drawers and shelves for the crockery, our room was pretty full of furniture.

After the house was completed we had to set to work to improve the land in all ways, and horses and oxen were bought to plough with. Our first purchase was a yoke of oxen They were not long from Texas, and not more than half broken in, and were a funny couple. To begin with, they did not at all match in colour, nor were they much alike in other respects. We called them " Broad " and "Pretty" — queer names for oxen you will say. Broad was about as fat as a slate, and Pretty — well, he was not named according to his looks anyhow, nor was his temper cf the best description. He was a most vicious and obstinate old brute. Broad was a decent old chap, but awfully lazy, and would let us ride on his back, being too lazy to trouble about the matter ; he could easily have fetched us off with his tremendous horns.