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From Earliest Settlement To The Year 1877.
BY F. F. CREVECOEUR,The following concerns the west half of Vienna township:
Gil Grossnickle, his wife, Sarah, and children, Seth, Cass (Mrs. Martin Day), Clara, Maggie, Amy, and Sydney, came to Kansas from Des Moines, Iowa, in the fall of 1866, and homesteaded his present home. He drove through with a team of mules. He built a log house on his claim. In 1868, when the grasshoppers came, he went back to Iowa to earn subsistence for his family. A son, James, was born to Mr. Grossnickle after he came here, who died at the age of two years. Mr. and Mrs. Grossnickle are natives of Pennsylvania.
Samuel Grossnickle, a brother to Gil, his wife, Lavina, and children, Sarah (Mrs. Andrew Clark), Daniel, William, Elizabeth (Mrs. Daniel Elder, of Crawford county), and John, drove from Des Moines, Iowa, in company with his brother, but he drove a horse team. He homesteaded his present home. The fall of 1868 he drove back, with his family, to Iowa, and returned the following spring, but his family did not come back until the year following (1870). Mrs. Grossnickle died eight or nine years ago.
Henry Newlin came to Kansas in 1869, and was soon after married to his wife, Mary, at Louisville. He lived a year near Mr. Roosa's place, and the next homesteaded the place where he lived until recently. His children born on the homestead are: Lida (Mrs. Frank Hodgson), Newton and George (twins). He served in the 12th Illinois during the war. His death last spring is still fresh in the memory of our citizens.
Frank A. Brown, who was born in Ohio in the same town (Lafayette) as General Alger, came from that state with his wife, Ella A., to Vienna, August, 1869. He came through on the cars, instead of driving with the conventional team, or yoke of oxen. He settled on his present homestead and built him a temporary house, in which he lived from September till the following January, of poles stuck in the ground and boarded up with lumber made of logs he hauled to Zimmerman's sawmill, which was then located on the DeGraw place. He built him a better house soon as he could, into which he moved during the following winter. His older children, Fred M. and Pearl (Mrs. Al Hardy, who died recently), were born on the homestead. Mr. Brown was in Company K, 42d Ohio Volunteer Infantry�Garfield's regiment�during the war. He bought 160 acres of additional land from the railroad some time after he came here.
Joseph Makins, his wife, Rosilla, and children, Edward E. and Emory Clark, came from Indiana in 1869, and homesteaded the place now owned by John Grubb. His son, Edward, died in 1885. Mr. Makins was in Company C, 74th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, during the war. He was a wagon maker by trade. He had some property in Indiana, which he traded for 160 acres of land adjoining his homestead.
Mr. Makins had a neighbor living on adjoining farm, by name of Hank Nelson, who came from Des Moines, Iowa, with his wife. He had a son born here. He removed to Cowley county in 1870. Mr. Nelson's father-in-law, Mr. Eckels, was living with him.
Oliver Meskimens and his wife came from Ohio in the late 60's, and homesteaded a place on Jim creek. He had two children, Ira, a son, and a daughter, Mrs. John Cockerel. He went South, where he died some years ago.
Albert Meskimens, his wife, Catharine, George Malone (a son of Mrs. Meskimens by a former marriage), and their children, Maid (Mrs. Jeff Harrison) and Harry, came from Birds Run, Grundy county, Ohio, in 1870, and settled on the farm now owned by Carl Figge. Mrs. Meskimens died a few years ago in Westmoreland, while Mr. Meskimens is now living in Oneida.
In the summer of 1871 there came up a storm while Mr. Meskimens was away, and the house was struck by lightning. The fluid followed down the stovepipe, damaged the stove somewhat, killed a lot of little chickens for Mrs. Meskimens (who had placed them under the stove), and tore a hole in the floor where it passed out of the house into the ground.
Andrew McClellan, who is a native of New York, came here from Lexington, Mo., in September, 1870. He wished to homestead 160 acres of land, but instructions had not yet been received at Topeka whether 160 or 80 acres should be taken on account of the proximity of the Union Pacific railroad, so, as he had to wait, he returned to Missouri, coming back soon after with J. C. Taylor, who brought his family, consisting of his wife, Eunice, and children, Everitt H. and Nellie, who was born on the way, in a wagon. He homesteaded the farm now owned by William Nicholas. He built a temporary shanty when he first arrived, and built his house, a frame one, in the fall of 1871. His son, Everitt, is now in Colorado, while Nellie is married and living in Iowa. His wife, Eunice, died in June, 1872. Mr. McClellan served during the war in both the 21st and 96th Illinois Infantry.
Peter Moshinaw was living on the John Berges farm in 1870.
James C. Taylor first came here from Missouri, in October, 1870, when he moved Mr. McClellan and family, and homesteaded his home that fall. The next spring he came back with his family, consisting of his wife, Mary, and children, James A., Thomas, Hannah (Mrs. A. Crumbaker), George, and Maggie. He first built a small temporary frame shanty, and the ensuing fall built his house. His sons, John and Samuel, were born on the homestead. Mr. Taylor is a native of New York, while his wife came from Ireland in 1846. Mr. Taylor had for early neighbors Phil Thorne, an Englishman, who owned and lived on the John Berges farm (the A. Crumbaker place).
He had come here in the late 60's. He sold out to Frank Brown, and is now in Sherman township. Another neighbor was John Binley, also an Englishman, who lived on what is now the Henry Berges farm. He married a widow by the name of Ellison, a sister of Mrs. Robinson. He sold out to Brown and went to Missouri, to the "Land of the Big Red Apples," but not liking it there he returned to southwest Kansas. He also came here in the late 60's.
Albert L. Stallard is a native of Virginia. He came here from Platte county, Missouri, of which state his wife, Harriet, is a native, in 1873. He bought school land and built a frame house on it. Mr. Stallard and Rev. Wade helped to organize a Baptist church at Laclede soon after the former came here. Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Baskett were members of that church.
Daniel B. Smith and his wife, Rebecca, were natives of Pennsylvania, going from that state to Iowa in 1842. They came, with their son, Frank, to Douglas county, this state, in the fall of 1873. They came to this locality April 16, 1874, and bought 320 acres of land of the county, which land had been intended for a poor farm, paying $2,600 dollars therefor. Mr. Smith died in 1897, and his wife died a year later. Mr. Smith's son, Frank, had preceded him to Douglas county by several years. Frank got married there in 1869. He went to Rossville in 1870, and worked in a sawmill for a year and a half. He came here when his parents did, with his wife, Mary Jane. A frame house was built on the farm his father had bought. He and his father brought a McCormick self-reaper with them from Douglas county, this being the first one brought to this locality. though (sic) Dick Guffy had some sort of a reaper in 1874, perhaps earlier. Mr. Smith brought 38 head of hogs with him from Douglas county. There being 4 sows that raised 18 pigs, the balance being shoats. Many will remember the drouth that occurred that year, and the grasshoppers that came in the fall. As there was no corn raised, it was necessary to do something with all those hogs besides trying to feed them; so Frank asked of Cox, of Wamego, who was a hog buyer there in those days, what he would give for them. He said he would give $1.50 per hundred for them. That was rather cheap, but it was take that or nothing; so the hogs were hauled down�that is, the 34 that were shoats on the spring�and when Cox saw them he said it was a shame to sell such hogs for $1.50, so he paid $2.00 for them. The pigs, of course, were too small to sell, so Frank bought oats of Jim Gorman at 45 cents per bushel, and went to Blue Rapids, where he got wheat at 50 cents, with which to winter them over. He butchered some of the sows for meat, but it was so lean that it would have required grease to fry it, and, as this could not be got from the butchered hogs, the meat had to be cooked by boiling. The next spring he had but one sow left, and she became the mother on the hogs he raised from that on. That same spring (1875) he had just $8 left. He went to Wamego, and with that money bought 8 bushels of corn at $1 per bushel. Seed corn was selected out of this, and the balance used for the horses while another crop was being raised. Frank recalls what must have been a general custom of those times. As prairie grass was free and unlimited, each man in starting to cut a piece of grass land would cut around what he could mow in a day, and no one dared molest him while cutting that piece. Just like school children, when one discovered a strawberry patch he would immediately proclaim, "This is my patch," and no one would dare to pick berries off said patch without the consent of the discoverer, though sometimes a favored girl schoolmate would be allowed to share in the find if the finder was a boy. The rule about cutting grass seems to have been followed pretty closely, so that if anyone should be too greedy he could not take advantage of more than the rule allowed him. The writer remembers how one time a neighbor thought, when the haying season commenced and most everybody started making hay about the same time, he would make sure of getting enough by cutting around a piece of grass that it would take two or three days to mow. Another neighbor, seeing the scheme, drove with his machine into the middle of the piece of grass land occupied by the first party, and proceeded to lay off a piece that he could mow in a day or less. The first man on the ground wanted to know what business the other had to trespass on his patch, but he was told he had no right to try and keep his neighbors from getting any hay by cutting around all the grass in the country. The first man, though not liking it, took the hint. Frank remembers a storm that occurred the night of the 3d of July. The wind blew a gale, beating the rain against the crops with a fury, and it was thought the corn would be ruined, but when the morning dawned and a view was taken of the fields, it was found the corn was but little hurt.
The three families following, though not having settled in Vienna township, are given a place here:
Peter Ott, with his wife, both being natives of Ohio, came to Kansas from Illinois in the spring of 1873. Mr. Ott bought his farm, which is in Sherman township, of Ben Huey. He brought all his children with him. They are: Charles, James, Albert, George, and Nora (Mrs. Edgar Forrester). James has since passed away, while Albert and George are in Cowley county.
William Randall, his wife, Lucinda Amanda, and children, Mary (Mrs. Ebenezer Elliott, of Stockdale, Riley county), Maud (Mrs. Garrard Mack), Minnie (Mrs. James Elliott), and William, came here from Rock Island, Ill., in 1871. He bought 148 acres of land of Pierce, a brother-in-law of Pomeroy, of Emporia, which is now owned by Will Grossnickle, near Arispie, in Sherman township. Mr. Randall is a native of England, having come from there in 1848. He was a sailor by profession, and served in the United States navy in the Mexican war, where he lost his arm. His wife is a native of New York.
James P. Basket moved from Missouri to Leavenworth county in 1852. From there he came here, with his wife, Florella, and daughter, Alice, in 1871, and settled on the place now owned by James Jenkins, northeast of Laclede, in Center township. Alice married Charles Day in 1872, and died in 1892.
Fred Bonjour
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