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Homesteading in Ellsworth County

A Short History of Ellsworth County by Inez L. Wyman Essick

Chapter 3

Empire township was organized in _______ shortly after the organization of Ellsworth County. For many years, it included over half of the county. In 1888, its population was 1,874, more than any town or township in the county. In 1884, the north half was made into Garfield township, and later, when Langley, Ash Creek and Thomas townships were partitioned off, the area of Empire township became one hundred and eight square miles; and it is with this area that a history of Empire township has to deal.

The renowned Colonel Henry Imman in an address given at Fort Harker, said that the earliest settlement made in the area now included in Ellsworth County was made in Empire township in 1860 by P. M. Thompson and Joseph Lehman of New York; D. H. Page of New Hampshire; D. Cusllinaus of Michigan; Adam Weadle, a German and Leverato, a Mexican. In the fall of 1859, Mr. Thompson the leader of the party was taking a small train of wagons to Santa Fe, New Mexico when the Indians stampeded nearly all their oxen. As they had no means of returning to New Mexico, they spent the winter hunting buffalo and discovered the beautiful creek in Empire township, which took its name from Mr. Thompson. As they thought this a better location for a hunting ranch, they built a dwelling along the creek on the land owned later by Mr. Robert Hudson and owned in 1911 by Mr. D. D. Hudson.

It is said that in the spring of 1861, twenty five acres of corn were planted here and tradition says that they raised a remarkably fine crop. During 1861, Messrs Lehman and Page left Thompson’s Creek to live on the Smoky Hill beside the Military Road and ___________ to make the first permanent settlement in Ellsworth township. In August of the same year, Thomas D. Bennett moved from Dickinson County to establish himself in partnership with Mr. Thompson. Colonel Imman said Mrs. Bennett had the honor of being the first white woman who lived in Ellsworth County. Mr. Bennett set up a blacksmith forge and repaired guns and rifles for the settlement. They also had a turning lathe by which they spun cords of buffalo hair into rope, which they made into lengths of forty feet and sold at a dollar apiece.

In 1862 Leverato, the Mexican left the settlement and the Bennetts left Mr. Thomas and went to live on the Saline River; and James Lewis of Kentucky became partner of Mr. Thompson. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis’ son Bill Butler Lewis was the first white child born in Ellsworth County. The Lewis family left in 1863.

In 1863 after the attacks made by the Indians in Barton County, all the settlers congregated at Page’s ranch and Mr. Thompson with them. After a short time, all of the white inhabitants of the county considered it too dangerous to remain and risk the Indian attacks so they loaded their few possessions and moved to Salina. So Empire township as well as the rest of the area of Ellsworth County became a wilderness.

The next settlement in the township was made on Thompson’s Creek in 1866 by Elijah Seates and family, Robert Hudson and family, and the Davis family who came overland and Mr. and Mrs. Luther Johnson, later of Maize, Kansas, came in 1867. Another other early settlers were Mr. and Mrs. Perry Campbell who came overland in a covered wagon from northern Missouri and took up their residence on Thompson Creek on the twenty-first of April 1866.

They first lived in a dugout or cave in the bank of the creek, then in a shed of hay and bush wood and later in a log cabin with a dirt roof and floor. The following extract from the very excellent article of their daughter, Mrs. Anna Campbell Boston in the Club Member of May 1909, tells of their experiences.
“It would take volumes to tell of the hard life and trials that came our way in those early years while making the effort to hold our homestead, and I sometimes feel that the present generation in reading of the struggles can’t half realize what their parents and grandparents endured for their sake – often we were driven from our homes by the Indians and go to Fort Harker and there remain for weeks at a time under the protection of “Uncle Sam.”
“One evening as we sat at our supper table a man came driving to the door and shouted to us to get away as soon as possible that the Indians were there only a few miles away – father’s first order was to “blow out the light”, then to tell mother that we must be very quiet while he hitched up the team which consisted of a yoke of oxen – not a very swift way of getting away from Indians, but the best we had. My brother cried to go back for his cap, but it is needless to say he went bareheaded, as our scalps were more to be considered on that occasion. When we returned to that house, it was found that robbers, either whites or Indians, had taken all of our household goods. Some were destroyed even our Bible and photographs.
“In the fall of the year the men of our little community would gather together and go buffalo hunting and secure meat for our winter supply. On one occasion when my father was one of the numbers, the hunters were lost in a blizzard and were unable to find their way, they were several days without food, excepting the flesh of a wildcat they had luckily caught. The storm was severe and they could not tell where they were or what direction to go so decided to let the faithful oxen guide them, with a team of horses following and were not long in reaching my uncle’s house on Thompson Creek, after having been given up as lost by the women and children.
“One of my early remembrances is of sitting about the old fashioned fireplace in our log cabin, waiting and listening for my father to return from town where he had been for supplies, 12 miles distant, to a rough cattle town but now the pretty little city of Ellsworth. In childish fancy, we each would claim a part of mother’s dress to sit upon, feeling safer there at her feet and how glad we all were when we heard the rattling of the wagon over the hard earth.
“Just three weeks before I was born, July 12, 1869 mother and her two children were alone when a noise from the outside caused her to look to the door and a man stood there apparently insane – he indicated this by drawing his hand across his throat and pointing to the top of his head while trying to talk but could not make himself understood – mother whispered to my sister, six years of age, to run to grand-father’s one half mile from us and hurry my father home, he being there at the time. On his return, he gave him food and took him to Fort Harker where he was placed in the hospital and treated. When he had grown better and could talk, he told a pitiful tale. With his family he had lived near McPherson and while ploughing in his field had seen Indians scalp his wife and children and he powerless to give them timely aid, but fled to the _______ and without food for six days had wandered to our house, deprived of the power of speech through fright.”

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hudson with their sons Duncan D. Hudson and R. B. Hudson and their daughters the Misses Jessie, Maggie, Sallie, and Jennie Hudson came in 1866 to reside on Thompson Creek. Though they had many hardships and inconveniences their dugout and later their big house was for many years the religious and social center of the south half of the county. Hospitality and a kindly interest in all – whether friends or strangers – was the rule of the household. They were Scottish Presbyterians and the first religious services in Empire township were conducted in their house by Reverend Levi Sternberg.

There were several other residents on Thompson Creek in the late sixties. The men planted and harvested crops on the fertile farm land along the creek, had small herds of cattle, which they sold in the cattle town of Ellsworth, and hunted buffalo and antelope for the winter supply of meat, while the women cooked meals in the large fireplaces in log houses with dust roofs and ground floors (as a board floor was a luxury in early times), and considered it an everyday affair to stay alone day or night in hourly danger of losing their lives at the friends of roving bands of Indians.

The first school house in Empire township was built of logs on Mr. Robert Hudson’s land, which school house became the place for _______ school, box suppers, church socials and religious services.

In 1885, the Fort Harker Presbyterian Church was built by Mr. Joseph Gilkison and Messrs J. M. and Abe Essick about a mile west from the Hudson homestead. Three hundred dollars was donated by the Presbyterian Church and the rest was raised by subscription of members of all denominations living in the east half of the county. The Reverend Wm. Hill of Kansas City preached the dedication services. After 1900, Presbyterian and Methodist services were held on alternate Sundays.

In 1905, the Ladies Aid Society of the Fort Harker Church was organized by Miss Hattie Essick and others and it has held meetings at houses of members every month since then and has added much to the social and religious interests of the community.

The first cemetery in this township was on the farm of Mr. Robert Hudson and remained there in 1911. About 1877 two acres of land adjoining the Fort Harker Church land were given by Mr. William Livingston to be known as the Buckeye Cemetery. The first to be buried there was Jonathan Top in the winter of 1878; the second was Edwin Cadwell, and the third Mr. John Schmidt, formerly of St. Louis.

Among the residents of Empire township who came before 1870 were Mr. and Mrs. David Essick and their little daughter Mary Essick, who came from Moultrie, Ohio and built their home on the open prairie. There were many inconveniences for them. One day when Mrs. Essick and her daughter were alone, a band of Indians on their way north to their former hunting ground came to the door and asked for something to eat. Mrs. Essick gave them bread. They indicated by signs that they wanted meat, but as she had only a small slab of bacon, and the only store was ten miles away at Ellsworth, where it was expensive, she told them that she had no meat for them. Then they wanted butter, so concealing her fears the plucky little woman went past them out doors. They followed her silently into the cellar peering after her and, fearful lest they might see the meat and be angry, she gave them the butter and they went away.

Many new settlers took claims between ’70 and ’80. They lived in tiny frame houses on the plains often without a tree in sight. During ’74, there were many families who lived entirely on corn meal ground from their own crop at the neighboring grist mill. A variation in diet seemed a luxury as the potatoe crop had been poor. There was no money to buy bacon and many did not know how to cook rabbits and small game in a palatable way. The buffalo and antelope were almost gone. Many a family did not have even a horse.

In the late seventies, Captain E. B. Millett, formerly of the Confederate army bought thirty thousand acres of land in Empire township, which became the largest ranch in the county. After holding it for ten years, he sold it to form part of the Sherman ranch and moved to New Mexico.

In 1872, Colonel W. S. Gile of York County, Pennsylvania, settled in Empire township near the eastern line of the county and at his farm, the post office of Venango was established in the late ‘70’s. Colonel Gile was very hospitable and friendly and habitually entertained many friends who dropped in to visit him in his library furnished in mahogany and ____cloth. For many years, Colonel Gile was U. S. fish commissioner.

A partial list of the landowners of the area now called Empire township copied from Mr. William A. Essick’s assessor’s book included the following.
Township 16 of range 6
Sections 1, 2, and 3, Eden Farm (owned by Douegau and Brown of Salina, later by Hardestin Collins and Tague, then to Mr. Babcock who sold it to Messrs Tremble and Westfall who about 1900 sold it into small farms).
Section 4 – J. Rhoades, W. Webster, A. Lawson and D. H. Kregor.
Section 5 – D. H. Kregor and Union Pacific Railroad
Section 6 – Mary Young, W. J. Thornburg and W. L. ________
Section 7 – Mary Young, D. H. Kregor, and J. H. Yingst
Section 8 – G. H. Shade, D. H. Kregor, and G. W. Sneath
Section 9 – D. H. Kregor and W.P.R.R.
Section 10 – J. Trego, Mary A. Beam, Mary E. McCray, and Wm Stewart
Section 11 – Eden Farm
Section 12 – M. A. ________, T. B. Holt and Eden Farm
Section 13 – Beam and Duncan
Section 14 – S. Rathooze, T. Jury, T. Anderson, and Eden Farm
Section 15 – W.P.R.R.
Section 16 – State School Land and J. M. Jones
Section 17 – J. H. Yingst and D. H. Kregor
Section 18 – J. M. McKeever and J. H. Yingst
Section 19 – E. B. Millett
Section 20 – J. H. Yingst and E. B. Millett
Section 21 – J. H. Yingst
Section 22 – L. Brubaker, D. Frankfort and J. E. Ashton
Section 23 – Eden Farm
Section 24 – Beam and Duncan
Section 25 – J. Y. Parker
Section 26 – Beam and Duncan, and W. S. Gile
Section 27 – W.P.R.R., Theresa M. Frankfort and Eden Farm
Section 28 – W. J. Thornberg and E. B. Millett
Sections 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33 – E. B. Millett
Section 34 – E. B. Millett, Eden Farm, R. A. Stewart, F. A. Merryweather and J. Radiel
Section 35 – Eden Farm, H. H. Olsen and O. W. Oleson
Section 36 – N. A. Swanson, H. Waber, H. Long, J. Rich, and S. Norris
Township 16, Range 7
Section 1 – F. A. Bates and W.P.R.R.
Section 2 – F. A. Bates, Emma P. Faris and A. Lawson
Section 3 – F. A. Bates, W.P.R.R. and J. Shoden
Section 4 – L. Sampson, C. Griffie, H. Z. Palmer, and B. Fagaun
Section 5 – T. Dawson, J. Davis, G. S. Eggleston, and Earnest Murphy
Section 6 – S. J. Gilmore, N. W. Page, P. C. Rogers and E. Gustin
Section 7 – A. Essick, L. Sternberg, Ernest Murphy and W.P.R.R.
Section 8 – C. Livingston, S. Livingston, J. Copley and A. Essick
Section 9 – G. W. Earle, M. Grovers, I. Miller and E_____ W. Underwood
Section 10 – K. F. Bixby, A. Ryan, G. Gilkison, and J. Shoders
Section 11 – A. Larkins and Martin T. Fuller
Section 12 – J. H. Henry, A. B. Stamps and J. H. Robbins
Section 13 – J. F. Baker
Section 14 – J. Radcliffe, E. R. Spofford, M. Naveu, J. W. Higgens, W. F. Perkins and A. R. Hepperly
Section 15 – J. Radcliffe, J. E. Beam and H. Shoemaker
Section 16 – I. Miller, W. L. _________, J. Long and J. Gilkison
Section 17 – A. Essick
Section 18 – J. S. Essick, D. Essick, L. Sternberg, and Josephine Schmidt
Section 19 – W. A. Essick, J. M. Essick and W.P.R.R.
Section 20 – James Duff, J. P. Reed and Wm. Faris
Section 21 – James Duff and E. Becker
Section 22 – Perry Campbell, J. Butler and John M. Young
Section 23 – James Young
Section 24 – J. W. Higgins. W. H. Hetrick and E. B. Millett
Section 25 – E. B. Millett
Section 26 – E. B. Millett and J. Burns
Section 27 – E. B. Millett and John M. Young
Section 28 – W. M. Campbell, R. D. Campbell, Geo. Campbell, C. K. Judson, C. M. Clifton and E. Seates
Section 29 – E. Seates, Robert Hudson and W.P.R.R.
Section 30 – Wm. Reed, J. H. Hoagland and N. C. Rogers
Section 31 – Sarah Hudson and W.P.R.R.
Section 32 – T. A. Seates, D. D. Hudson, B. Hudson, Jessie Hudson and Robert Hudson
Section 33 – E. Seates, Robert Hudson, Sarah Hudson, M. Schmiegan, and W.P.R.R.
Section 34 – C. Johnson, J. Johnson, N. Johnson, and A. Gilkison
Section 35 – E. B. Millett
Section 36 – E. B. Millett and J. F. Dyer
Township 17, Range 7
Section 1 – J. F. Dyer
Section 2 – L. Adams, H. Boller, E. Johnson, S. Henderson and J. Clark
Section 3 – J. Paschal and W.P.R.R.
Section 4 – M. Schmiegan, J. Baird, J. McDwitt, H. Harvey T. A. Baker and Robert Hudson
Section 5 – W.P.R.R.
Section 6 – M. L. Bailey, D. Livingston, W. H. McKeaver and J. Bryant
Section 7 – W.P.R.R. and H. B. Clark
Section 8 – W. R. Livingston , T. A. Baker, L. R. Johnson, B. A. Wood and Mary A. Spencer
Section 9 – E. B. Millett
Section 10 – T. A. Baker, J. A. Parks and E. B. Millett
Sections 11, 12, and 13 – E. B. Millett
Section 14 – E. B. Millett, J. M. A. Porter and J. A. Williams
Section 15 - E. B. Millett
Section 16 – State School Land and W. P. Parks
Section 17 – B. A. and C. H. Wood and W.P.R.R.
Section 18 – H. B. Clark, W. C. Hagar, C. Peterson, E. White and R. E. White
Section 19 – H. B. Clark
Section 20 – R. F. P______, J. C. Croskins, J. D. P_______ and H. B. Clark
Section 21 – E. B. Millett and J. W. Dunlap
Section 22 – J. Byrrie, D. Sheffield, E. B. Millett
Section 24 – J. H. Forney, S. C. Dressler, F. Dressler and T. S. Boggs
Section 25 – E. B. Millett
Section 26 – E. B. Millett, R. J. Clutter and B. F. Johnson
Section 27 – E. B. Millett
Section 28 – B. Wood, L. W. Marshall, H. B. Baldwin and O. P. Peterson
Section 29 – H. B. Clark
Section 30 – H. W. Cronkite, J. W. and M. A. Tyson, W. C. Hagan, M. J. Helmer and H. B. Clark
Section 31 – W. C. Hagan and W.P.R.R.
Section 32 – J. L. Jones, J. W. Porter, J. G. Overstreet and A. Worl
Section 33 – W.P.R.R.
Section 34 – Wm French, L. A. Rose, J. L. Sack and M. Chapman
Section 35 – E. B. Millett
Section 36 – State School Land

Mail routes were early established in Empire township with many farm post offices. On the Star mail route from Ellsworth to Little River, started in the late seventies, were the stations of Keever, Venango, Trivoli and Bradley Springs. Keever was at the farm of William McKeever and existed for only a short time; Venango was at the home of Colonel Gile; Bradley Springs was on the farm of H. W. Cronkite near the south line of the county, while Trivoli was at the farm of Luther Johnson where it continued until the late eighties. The name of Trivoli was reused about 1904 until 1908, when it was given to the home of William Hughes, which was the end of the Star mail route over which Mr. Charles Woods was mail carrier. Farisville post office was started in the late eighties, the mail being carried from Kanopolis and continued in 1911, at that time being the only farm house post office in the county. The first post master was Mr. Erskine Becker who resigned in ’89 and was succeeded by Mrs. Eunice Doane who held it in 1911.

Many changes have taken place in Empire township. The establishment of Kanopolis and Geneseo decreased the number of twelve and eighteen mile shopping trip to Ellsworth and Brookville, which trip gradually came to be made in pl______ and carriages rather than lumber wagons after 1895, and after 1909 automobiles became more common. The things purchased had a different appearance when added prosperity brought the practice of cash buying and the mail order catalogues brought to their homes the up-to-date wares of the larger stores in Kansas City, Chicago, New York and Boston. Telephones became common in the farm houses about 1904, daily mail routes came about 1909, water works systems and acetylene plants became common upon the farms where many large houses were built. While table silver and imported china, dress silks and good libraries, and the more expensive accessories have always been more an every day affair among the rural population of Ellsworth County than among the town people, the farmers have been too modest, and the town people, even though their livelihood was dependent up on the farmer’s patronage, too ______ in the presence of evidence of ____________, not to wish to have the possession of them bounded by the ______ of the town, and so the fact was not given general acceptance for a long time.

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